


Split in two

by Vee_neks



Series: Miraculous Fics [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Idiots in Love, Late Night Conversations, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Mutual Pining, Original Akuma, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepovers, Superhero Patrol (Miraculous Ladybug)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-02-23 12:37:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23511631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vee_neks/pseuds/Vee_neks
Summary: Marinette finds Chat breaking stuff on her balcony and confronts him. Before long, her and Chat are in her room watching movies every night and talking about crushes, or so to speak, Marinette's crush. When chat tells her to go for it, she doesn't understand why Adrien suddenly seems to distance himself. Or why the cat is suddenly making her blush more than him...
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Miraculous Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691755
Comments: 76
Kudos: 225





	1. The Plant Pot Breaker

Homework. Homework. Homework...

Marinette's tongue is poking out of her mouth as she tries to focus on the task in front of her. Unfortunately, it's one of her least favoured subjects, which is the reason why she can't seem to focus tonight. Or maybe it's because she's the new guardian and that's a lot of pressure for one teenager to deal with especially her because she's also the class president and has to help out with school stuff as well as continue helping to run the bakery with her maman and papa and on top of that she still continues to sew and help out kitty section and look at posters of Adrien and think about their future...

No, it's definitely the homework.

She's scribbling out yet another attempt at drawing a velocity graph when she hears a smash on her balcony. She looks at Tikki, who immediately flew up from her resting place, looking back at Marinette.

"What was that?"

Marinette shrugs, before hearing another smash, both of them jumping slightly. She puts her pen down and tells Tikki to hide as she climbs up the stairs to her skylight.

She presses her palm against the pane and pokes her head through, trying to be quiet. Another smash, and she sees Chat Noir frantically running around her balcony and scratching his head. What the-

"Marinette!" He's spotted her and looks between her and the three newly broken pots on the floor. He turns a sheepish grin, sticking his hand behind his head. 

"I'm sorry! I really am! I accidentally knocked one over as I came past here, and then I tried picking it up but my tail hit another one, and then I tried picking the second up and I hit a third-"

"Chat, why are you out so late?"

He looks at her, frozen for a second. He straightens up, "I was just on patrol. Patrolling Paris. You know..."

Marinette knows he doesn't have patrol tonight, they had it last night, but she knows that kind of excuse. It's the kind he uses when he doesn't want to be home. She hurts for him.

"Wait here for a second." She doesn't wait before jumping down her stairs to grab a coat and then climbing back up to join Chat. He's still moping around, trying to pick up the pot plants. She knows he feels bad about them, so, smiling, she goes over to help him pick them up.

"It's ok. These pots are only for decoration. They were bound to break sitting on the balcony, they could've been blown over by wind, or an akuma." She gives him a slight smile as he visibly relaxes. He gets too worked up over small things.

"I know, but I'm still sorry that I'm making you clean this mess."

"You're not making me, I'm helping you." He turns to her and smiles gratefully. "Besides, it's giving me a break from physics."

"You don't like physics?"

"Like? No, I do not like physics. I don't understand anything, and when I think I do, then it changes." She throws her hands up in the air out of frustration and hears Chat give a little chuckle. They both sweep the remaining dirt into a corner as Marinette mentions she can get a dustpan later.

"Physics is just maths. You just have to know when to use certain formulas and what forces to pay attention to." 

"Why do you sound like you'd be good at it?"

"Because I am Princess," He gives a wink, "I'm good at a lot of things. I'm very claw-ver."

Marinette rolls her eyes at his antics. "Uh huh. I bet you're good at flirting too."

"Is it working?"

"No."

Chat snorts at her short response. Marinette notices him cross his arms for warmth, realising it must be very cold for him standing still for so long.

"Hey you look cold, did you want to come inside to warm up?"

Chat's eyes go wide. "Oh no, that's ok! This cat should be going home anyways." His sheepishness has returned, which reminds Marinette of why he was out in the first place.

"Really? You don't even want to have a hot croissant?" Emphasising the 'hot croissant' to tempt him across the line, which she can see works as Chat's eyes light up.

"Well, now that you say it..."

"I know you want one, Chat." Marinette opens the skylight and descends, knowing he'll follow her in. It isn't a second before the cat slinks his way in, sitting cross legged on her bed.

"Stay here, don't break anything else, I'll be back in a minute." She eyes him as she leaves the room, hoping he actually listens to her, and goes downstairs to heat up a croissant. 

After a few minutes of finding the croissants, heating up and sneaking her way back upstairs, she climbs up to see Chat at her desk, scribbling on her homework.

"Chat!"

He jumps. "What? I'm just making notes to help you. Fur real!" He stands up with his hands in a surrender position as Marinette goes over to inspect her notes. They're actually really helpful, and don't give the solution so she can work it out herself. She sighs.

"Fine. Thank you." She spins around to thank him properly.

"Wow that's a lot of posters. My father doesn't let me hang anything I want. He likes my walls to be empty and clean." The way he hisses that last part nearly makes Marinette forget the fact that someone other than Alya is looking at her Adrien shrine. She half panics.

"That's a- um- they're pictures of my cr-FRIEND. Yeah, they're pictures. Of my friend. Just friend." She chuckles nervously, grimacing in the process as she puts the croissant in Chat's hand and wheels him towards the Chaise. 

Chat, oblivious to her stuttering doesn't wait long before putting the whole croissant in his mouth. Marinette watches as he closes his eyes and smiles before gulping. So much for savouring it...

"It's because you like designing, right?" Marinette raises an eyebrow, "I mean, the reason why you have so many posters of your fur-iend!" Marinette vigorously shakes her head yes. "I'm sure he'd be honoured to be the feature of your walls, Princess." Chat beams at her from the Chaise as Marinette starts to feel her face flame up. Change of topic!

"Do you play video games?"

A smirk is all the answer she needed.

***

It's been 3 hours and they've been playing video games, chatting away about school subjects, teachers and friends (without names of course) and talking about favourite books, songs, and movies. Eventually, Marinette stumbles upon an unknown secret of Chat's.

"Ok, I'll tell you this ONLY because I'm tired enough to not be thinking purr-operly."

"Yet you still make puns."

Chat eyes the room, as if someone was going to come up at 2am before leaning in and whispering, "I like mew-sicals. Like, a lot." Marinette leans back, grasping the concept of Chat standing in his room, belting his heart out to frozen. She laughs.

"STOP! Marinetteeeee!" He drags her name on as he pouts at her reaction. It only makes her laugh more. "I thought I could trust you." He says as he 'tsks' and looks away from her, folding his arms.

"I'm," Breath, "Sorry." Another laugh, "I'm sorry, I just imagined you belting out let it go in your room." 

There's a pause before Chat's posture shrinks into himself.

"You have!" Another bout of laughter from Marinette causes her to fall back onto her side, curling up from her stomach hurting. Chat eventually can't be mad, and starts to laugh with her before they're both laughing. 

They calm down a bit before Marinette, wiping a tear away from her eye, starts, "Hey, I think it's cool to like musicals. I like them myself. A lot." Chat's ears perk up at this.

"You do?"

"Mhmm."

"We can watch them together!" His tail straightens out at this revelation, showing his excitement. "I've never had another friend who liked musicals."

"Well now you have one, and besides, Alya doesn't like them either. She complains about the realistic aspect of musicals. Same with Nino I believe. I'm not sure about Adrien..."

Chat notices the time on Marinette's clock and, being responsible, knows he should head home before he gets too tired. He lets out a sigh as he turns to face Marinette.

"Marinette, thank you very much for letting me in. You are very good company, and I hope we can continue this soon but I must be off now." Marinette also notices the time.

"Oh yes, it's late. Or early. Maybe you want to pop by tomorrow? I'll have a musical ready for us to watch?" Chat sits up straight at the idea and nods vehemently, producing a giggle from Marinette. Silly Cat. He really should be getting more love than what she knows he receives. She'll have to help in that department. "Alright, tomorrow it is."

Chat stands up and stretches, arching his back. He grabs Marinette's hand, placing a small peck on it, "Thank you for having this cat. I'm feline much better." he gives her a salute before jumping back up through the skylight, gone as quickly as he came in. Marinette yawns, only just noticing how tired she is. She lugs herself up to her bed, turning the light off before passing out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write something so this is it. Hope you enjoy it (so far), I'll have the next part up in a couple of days! Every update should be a couple of days within each other so hopefully this won't be too long until it's finished!
> 
> Also I wanted to ask: Do you prefer one shots or chaptered fics? Long or short?


	2. The Poster Boy

The next day is a Monday, which Marinette is dreading. Not for any reason, it just means she has to get up early to get to school, which she's bad at. VERY bad at. And considering she finds herself running to school while zipping her bag up, shoving her breakfast in her mouth and two hair bands around her wrist yet to tie up her hair, you could say she slept in a bit. Again.

She jogs up the stairs, finishing tying her hair into her usual pigtails and quickly walks across the courtyard to the stairs as she feels a movement in her purse.

"I told you to get up earlier!" Tikki grumbles from her bag, visible only to Marinette.

"I'm sorry Tikki! I was tired from last night." She gives yet another yawn and tries covering her mouth before seeing Adrien running up the stairs next to her, pausing when he sees Marinette. He waves.

"Hi Marinette!"

Marinette chokes a bit, seeing his perfect smile, perfect hair, perfect body...

"Marinette?"

"Huh? Oh! H-Hi Adrien..." She gives him the same awkward smile she always does, berating herself for sounding so awkward. Why does she do this to herself?!?

"You look very tired. Late night?" He questions her, seeming a bit too interested in her response. Marinette's too tired and embarrassed to care at this point, but does notice the copius amounts of makeup under Adrien's eyes. Her brows furrow.

"Yeah. Too you- I MEAN- you too? Hehe..." God, she's hopeless.

Adrien gives a small chuckle and smiles directly at her. "Yeah, you could say that."

Uh oh, blush incoming. Marinette's head ducks down as she follows the blonde inside to their classroom, having arrived just in time for roll call. 

Adrien, seeing Marinette stammering after his responses and putting her head down has a brief wave of panic fall over him. Does she know? No, he tries to calm himself as he takes his seat in class, there's no possible way she could know! She's always been a little shy at school that's all.

Mlle Bustier calls him name, breaking his train of thought. 

"Present!"

Mlle Bustier continues down the roll as a thought occurs to him. Marinette seemed fine when she was around Chat Noir last night. In fact, she is pretty normal around most people, it just seems to be around Adrien. He's not sure if it's specifically him or if it's something else that's always around him, but he hopes it's not because she dislikes him. He's pretty sure he would have picked up if she didn't like him by now...

Meanwhile, as soon as Marinette gets to her desk, she slides down and deflates, her head falling onto the desk. Alya smirks, knowing the exact reason why. Sunshine boy.

"What did you do this time?"

"I blushed. Really badly."

Alya shrugs. "I'm sure he didn't think anything of it." She leans in, "You know how dense that boy can be, by now I wouldn't care too much if you confessed to him because he still wouldn't know."

"That's a bit harsh."

"It's true!" Alya snorts, backing off the topic for the sake of Marinette's pride "Sorry girl, I've been a bit restless waiting for another chance to capture Ladybug and Chat Noir on camera. A Journalist never sleeps!" She winks at Marinette, who rolls her eyes.

"You know that means you're just asking for an Akuma to occur, right?"

"Anything to see Ladybug in the action!" 

Suddenly screams are heard from outside, and emergency alerts are pinging up on student's phones. Marinette looks directly at Alya, eyes boring into her.

"Did you plan this?"

"No, but I'm not missing it!" She scoops up her bag, leaving before she can even finish her excuse to Mlle Bustier, who dismisses her anyways. Adrien leaves next, saying something about his dad wanting him. Marinette needs to get out quick before Mlle Bustier stops her.

"I need to leave too! I have to use the bathroom, desperately!" She gives her a sly grin as she rushes out the door before Mlle can protest, quickly finding the closest bathroom to transform in.

***

"Hey Kitty"

"Morning M'Lady! How are you feline today?" He stands on a rooftop, looking over at the akuma who's currently perched on top of the Louvre pyramid.

"Not too great, with an akuma this early into the day."

"But at least you get to see me!"

"Yes, I do Kitty." She ruffles his hair affectionately, "Now, what are we dealing with."

"Girl, teenager probably, seems obsessed with making people lose stuff?"

Ladybug frowns. "Lose stuff as in lives and loved ones?"

Chat Noir's lips tilt a little to the side in thought. "No, more like car keys and shopping bags."

"Oh... Interesting. But we heard screams?"

"Yeah, some girl lost her weave." Chat starts bending over laughing, as saying it out loud made it seem so much more hilarious. Ladybug looks at him, unamused. She heaves out a sigh.

"Come on Chat, let's clean this up." She doesn't wait before swinging her way into action, knowing Chat was behind her every step of the way. 

They finish the fight quicker than most other fights, although Chat did lose his staff towards the end, but they got it back after Ladybug's cure. Ladybug and Chat Noir comfort the girl, who had seemed to have lost her dog. Chat Noir looks so sad hearing this, and asks if he can help hand out posters, which makes the girl smile and give half of her stack of flyers. Ladybug, upon hearing her earrings beep, says that she unfortunately has to leave, but Chat pleads her to come back and help.

"Ladybug, please!" He gives her the cat eyes that she ador-hates! God, he always gets what he wants when he uses those.

"Fine! I'll be back in a few minutes." She swings away as the cat does a dance. Stupid cat.

She powers up in a second, having a quick talk with Tikki, who thinks it's a great way to reach out to the citizens of Paris by helping them. Ladybug, rejuvinated, swings back to find half a dozen posters everywhere near the Louvre.

"Chat!"

"Yes Bugaboo?" He blinks innocently.

"Why did you put all the posters in one spot?"

"Why not?"

"Because," She huffs as she takes a few down, "It's better if you spread them out amongst multiple streets. That way, more people see it."

Chat looks at her in awe. "You're so smart M'Lady. Almost as smart as you are beautiful." He attempts to grab her hand to kiss, only to have her hand on his nose, pushing him away. She turns to him with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought you wanted to hand out posters, not flirt." She turns away to hang up more, smirking. But as always, the Cat comes bouncing back.

"I can do both, I'm that multi-talented." He gives her a wink as he takes a few more posters and jumps to the roof, intending to go to the street over to place the posters. Ladybug joins him, choosing another adjacent street to put the posters on.

"I don't doubt that you are talented Chaton, but stay focused. I still have to go back to class after this." She jumps down to the street below and absentmindedly starts hanging posters. A few minutes later, she regroups with Chat, giving him a quick wave goodbye and confirming their patrol scheduled for the following night. He gives another wink as he lifts himself off the ground, jumping over the building and out of sight. Ladybug waits a few moments before doing the same.

***

Marinette flops on her bed after coming home from school. After the events of the Akuma, there really wasn't anything memorable about her day. She didn't embarrass herself around Adrien as he had to leave to go home at lunch, but she did get some more homework.

After doing a few sheets of her homework, she gets up, deciding to work a bit more on a dress she was making for Alya. She thought it would be nice for her friend to have another dress, especially since Nino and her were dating, meaning she could wear it to one of their dates. For the most part it was cut and measured, she just needed to do some final hand-stitchings, add a few lace decorations here and there and finish it up. She could probably even finish it that day.

"It looks very nice, Marinette. I'm sure Alya will love it!" Tikki bobs up beside Marinette as she inspects the dress. She smiles at the kwami's enthusiasm.

"Thanks Tikki, I hope she does."

Marinette sets off sewing the afternoon away, nearly forgetting her plans made for later that night...

***

After school, Adrien quickly packs all of his homework and grabs his bag before Nathalie schedules him off to a prompt photoshoot. His dad was preparing another line, meaning Adrien had to once again model for him. If he was being honest though, he was getting tired of it. Sure, it was fun at first, but after seeing your face on a billboard that many times, it can only become tiresome.

His dad wasn't present, but then again he never was, so Adrien snuck away when they weren't taking photos to try and finish his homework before he got home. After all, he'd be eating dinner, saying a fake goodnight to Nathalie and jumping out the window to Marinette's place. That's the motivation for getting through this photoshoot.

Once it's done, his homework is completed, he's eaten and told Nathalie he would be sleeping, he starts to feel excited. He gives a Plagg a few minutes to eat more cheese (as usual) whilst he quickly hops in the shower. He doesn't want to go over there smelling! After this, he calls for his transformation, and hops out the window into the cool night.

He can feel his cheeks burn slightly from the contact with the cold, but it's a good feeling. Freeing. He loves this feeling, can never get enough of it. And Ladybug makes it 100 times better too.

Jumping over roofs at record speed, he nearly breaks another plant whilst landing on Marinette's balcony. He walks over to the skylight, giving a tentative knock and waits. He sees a shadowy figure approach before the pane is lifted.

"Chat? OH MY GOD WAIT-" She abruptly shuts the pane and leaves Chat out in the cold, confused. After a minute, she reopens it, panting.

"You can come in now."

"What happened?"

Marinette sits on her bed playing with her fingers, "I forgot you were coming and was in the middle of finishing off a dress I made for Alya so I had to clean everything up and put away the sewing kit." She sits there, awkwardly smiling, which produces a laugh from Chat.

"Can I see it?"

"The dress?"

"Yes purrr-lease." Chat pleads before Marinette nods, climbing down her ladder and opening up a section of her closet. She pulls out a beige, knee-length dress, with some beautiful tulle decorated and held up with lace. Chat's jaw nearly drops at the sight of it, wondering how Marinette has such talent. No wonder her dad chose her design, she is a natural when it comes to designing and sewing.

"Is this hand stitched?" Marinette hums in agreement, making Chat even more impressed, "Marinette, this is absolutely stunning."

Marinette blushes at the compliment. "Thanks Chat. By the way," she asks curiously, "how did you know it was hand-stitched?"

"I have a family who likes to sew, so I know a few things here and there." 

Marinette, as if judging him up, nods in approval before putting the dress away and reaching out for her laptop. 

"Okay Chat. I promised you a musical and you will get a musical. Now, I have two choices, one is an oldie but a goodie, and two is my recently found favourite musical. Which one?"

"Don't I get to know the choices before I pick them?"

"Nope!" Marinette pops the p as she sits on the chaise and pats the spot next to her, beckoning Chat over. He plants himself next to her and leans over her shoulder hoping for a glance before being pushed away on the nose by her.

"No peeking!" She gives him a smirk, making his heart jump a little as she strikingly resembles his lady for a moment. He blinks, and it's Marinette again, looking at him and waiting for an answer.

"Ok, I pick old one. And tomorrow we'll watch the new one."

She pauses to think about his proposition. "Alright, old one it is." She clicks open a window with a disk player, "I have them downloaded onto my computer, I watch them that much." Her little emphasis on that makes Chat smile as he sits down next to her, covering himself with the same blanket. "Chat, we are going to watch my favourite musical ever since I was a child..." She drumrolls for anticipation, "Singin' in the rain!"

Chat slaps his forehead. "How did I NOT see that coming. Alright, can't wait!" He leans into the blanket giving him a better view of the screen as Marinette wiggles excitedly and hits the play button.

They've sat through the first half an hour before Chat or Marinette say a word. Chat absentmindedly tilts his head and hushes a question to Marinette.

"So... Marinette?"

"Mhmm?"

"Did my physics notes help at all?"

"Actually they did! I understand the kinematics a bit better at least!" She turns to Chat giving him a small but grateful smile, "Thank you."

A fond gaze stares back at her. "No purr-oblem. My class had similar homework, so it was on my mind already."

Marinette shifts at the slightly personal detail, but doesn't think too much on it, knowing her kitty would be careful. "So, you're good at physics. What else are you good at?"

He ponders for a moment before answering, "I'm really good at physical education! This helps though." he gestures at himself in the cat suit, looking bashful, "What about you? What subject captures the princess's fancy?"

The musical plays through as Marinette immediately responds. "Art. And I guess English too, but mostly art."

"I could definitely see that. Your art is amazing Marinette! The whole class thinks so!"

She gives a small smile, confused at his statement. "You've met my class?"

She sees Chat's eyes blink widely before quickly responding, "Oh, because most of them have been akumatised! I've met most of them, and to those I see around, they always have something nice to say about mew." Chat's amazed at his own save, and visibly relaxes as he sees Marinette accepting it.

"Wait, all of them have something nice to say?"

"Yes of course! They all love you."

Marinette's shoulders start to shrug as she laughs without emotion. Barely looking up, she whispers, "I wish it was all of them."

Chat's eyebrows fold together at this. He gives her a puzzled look, but she only shies away at this, leaving his thoughts to mull it over. He cracks a grin as he picks up on it.

"Looks like the princess has a crush. I wasn't aware of this." Marinette's face only gets redder, causing Chat to laugh out loud. Marinette hushes him, as he barters, "Only if you tell me more about this new 'crush'."

Marinette gives him a face, but resigns after seeing the gleeful look in Chat's eye. Well, it's not like he's ever going to know she was Ladybug, so it wouldn't hurt his feelings. Right?

She heaves a sigh, faces the musical again and continues to watch as she starts to talk. "It's not exactly a new crush. I've had a crush on him for a while now." Inside, Chat is very curious and trying to think about who it might be. He had never heard of Marinette having a crush on anyone. 

She continues. "Literally everyone knows about it. Or they've picked it up. I make it very obvious. I panic and get really nervous around him and then I look really weird, and so every time I've tried to ask him to hang out or tell him and confess my feelings, my nervousness gets in the way. It's really annoying, but I'd much rather know him as a friend than not at all, do you know what I mean?" The way her eyes plead to Chat makes him lean over to pause the movie, and quietly gather her hands within his own. He holds her gaze.

"Let me tell you a story about my own crush. Ladybug." She nods. He continues. "I was so in love with her from the moment we had our first fight against Stoneheart. She was brave, and stood up when everyone was counting on her. Her tenacity shone through, and she's probably the reason why there are so few akumas around. There could be so many more, but she is a beacon of hope and light. At least, that's how I see her. Every time I'm with her and I look in her eyes, I'm safe, because I trust her and she trusts me. Every time she entertains my flirts with a witty remark, I'm speechless because she makes my heart flutter with anticipation of what's next. So, when I decided to tell her, it wasn't a matter of if I could or couldn't do it. It was a matter of making sure she knew how I felt. If she was the person who I fell in love with, then I knew there was no way she would make things awkward and not speak to me again, in fact she would probably understand me better. We could build a better bond. And if she turned out to not be the person who I fell in love with and outright rejected me as a partner and friend, then I dodged a bullet." He squares Marinette's shoulders with his hands.

"Marinette, you cannot let fear stop you from telling him the truth. He deserves to know. And, if he's great enough to capture the heart of the Marinette Dupain-Cheng, then I know there is no way he would stop becoming friends with you over something like this." Chat puts his hand under Marinette's chin, lifting it up to level her eyes with his own. "You're too good a person to not be friends with." He finishes his spiel with a fond smile, making Marinette's heart race. That expression was so familiar, and made her feel flushed. She nodded as Chat took his hand away and turned to continue watching the movie as Marinette was left speechless. Eventually she turned back to watch with him, leaning closer to his shoulder.

"Thank you Chat. I think I understand what you mean, so I'm going to try and be more forward with him from now on."

"That sounds like a great idea, Marinette."

The movie continues as both teens feel the fatigue from last night's late departure, until finally Marinette's head slips onto Chat's shoulder, shocking him awake. He sees her sleeping and decides to pause the movie, close the laptop and put it away. He turns to take a snoring Marinette back up to her bed, making sure to tuck her in and make her comfy, before looking around to make sure he has everything.

With a quick glance at the sleeping girl, the cat makes his way back into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was meant to have this up yesterday but some complications arose so it's up today woops
> 
> I think I'm aiming for posting every 2-4 days for chapters though, which I think is very doable
> 
> Let me know what yall think


	3. The Angel

Despite being quite tired after his late night stay at Marinette's, Adrien promptly gets out of bed after hearing his alarm. He quickly packed his gear and got dressed, awaiting Nathalie's knock on his door.

Knock knock. "Adrien?"

"Yes Nathalie."

"You have breakfast in 5 minutes and then you should be in the car in 20 minutes."

"Yes Nathalie." He responds with a sigh of resignation. He doesn't blame her, but she can be a bit robotic and emotionless. She closes his door as he gets ready to go downstairs, needing a few extra minutes to tug Plagg from his beloved cheese. As always, this ended with Adrien bargaining to add an extra cheese wheel in his bag, and Plagg 'inconspicuously' adding 3 more. What a glutton.

He runs downstairs, eats his breakfast and makes his way out the door, not for getting to bring some makeup for the day. He never felt weird carrying it around, it was something he had to accustom to ever since the late nights staying up due to homework and Chat Noir. He didn't want his father breathing down his neck about his appearance. 

The Gorilla pulls up to the front steps of the school. Adrien thanks him as he steps out and grabs his bag to sling on his shoulder. Checking to make sure Plagg is still inside, he's had to do this constantly since Kwamibuster, he makes his way up the stairs.

Adrien finds himself quite surprised when he walks into class to see Marinette in her spot, but he's not surprised to see her head on her desk, sleeping. He smiles, feeling special knowing why she stayed up late, but he does feel slightly bad.

As class is about to start, Adrien goes to his desk to unpack things and tries to gently wake Marinette up. Ever so lightly, he places his hand on her shoulder.

"Marinette? Hey, Marinette?"

He hears a groan.

"Marinette, class is going to start soon." He looks around, wondering where Alya and Nino are considering class was approaching. Trying one last time, he sees the opportunity to be a mischievous.

He leans down close enough to her ear.

"Hey Princess, you should've told me watching mew-sicals made you so tired."

At that, he flings back as Marinette shoots up.

"WHAT- WHERE- when, wait where am I?" She looks around, rubbing her eyes and finally adjusting to the light, she sees Adrien smiling down at her. "Oh cool, there's an angel, so I'm still dreaming."

Adrien chuckles. "No, I was trying to wake you up. Class is starting in a moment." 

Marinette thanks the lord of good timing because Alya and Nino burst in at that moment, meaning Adrien doesn't see the massive freak out happening behind him. She just called him an angel to his face, why-

"Girl are you ok?"

Alya looks at her wondering, but Marinette simply nods and slumps back down, trying her best but failing to not look at the blonde of her dreams. Literally.

***

Later that night, Marinette was making sure she had finished everything she needed to do for tomorrow. She was making pleasant conversation with Tikki about the previous night.

"Marinette, I think you should give Chat Noir a chance. He was such a gentleman last night."

Marinette scoffs. "Gentleman? How, he just sat with me and watched a musical."

Tikki gives a displeased squeak. "You fell asleep! Yet you magically woke up in your bed."

Marinette looks at Tikki, eyes squinting to see the picture.

Tikki sighs, defeatedly. "After you fell asleep, Chat Noir took you up to your bed. He also closed off your laptop and made sure it was charging, but I saw him up close when he was at your desk. He looked very tired. You should check on him."

At hearing this, Marinette's eyes shift to worry, knowing her partner would be the type to not tell her when he needed help. She agreed with Tikki, making a goal of thanking him next time she saw him. As Marinette of course. As for his lack of sleep, he probably needed a talk from his partner about that.

"You're right Tikki. I don't give that cat enough credit." She rubbed Tikki's head affectionately. "I'll make sure I check on him on patrol."

"And maybe next time if he comes around, he might want to recharge. It'll give Plagg a rest."

"Are you sure you don't just want to catch up with him." Marinette teases Tikki, who immediately flies higher in defence.

"No! I've spent enough time with that stinky sock. I just know it's hard to keep up a transformation that long. Maybe you should bring that up too on patrol, so Chat's aware of it."

"Bring up no staying in transformation for too long unless necessary to Chat as Ladybug inconspicuously without letting him know I know about the musical sleepovers?"

"Exactly! And speaking of patrol, shouldn't you be leaving." Tikki's eyes flick over to the clock, leaving Marinette scrambling around as she quickly calls her transformation, much to Tikki's amusement, and flings herself out of the skylight and across Paris.

As she's approaching, she can see Chat's already waiting at their meeting spot for her. Most people would assume that Chat was the tardy one of the two, but Marinette's famous trait of losing time definitely leaked into both of her lives. She swings up to the platform, landing with a thud.

"Evening M'Lady!"

"Good evening Chat." She sees Chat's eyes following her as she sits down next to him. "How are you tonight."

"Glad I get to see you Bugaboo." His eyes shine as he looks at her with the same awe on his face as the first day they met. Marinette's heart sinks, knowing she can't return the feelings and feeling like she's already hurt him enough.

"Well," trying to take her mind off of her negative thoughts, "why don't we start? I have some things to talk to you about while we're patrolling."

Chat jumps up, stretching his arms and legs out before grabbing his baton. "Ready when you are M'Lady." Both of them start smirking as they propel themselves off the platform, loving the cool rushing air passing their faces.

They've made a bit of banter here and there, but it isn't until the last leg of patrol that Ladybug decides to bring up the topic Tikki suggested talking to Chat about. 

"Hey Chat."

"Yes Bug?"

She stops on a roof top, causing Chat to stop beside her. She looks carefully at his eyes. "Are you ok? Genuinely?"

Chat's eyes go wide before he gives a sheepish grin. "Yes of course M'Lady. I'm ok right now."

"You look tired. You need to make sure you're sleeping properly."

He looks away from her eyes, no doubt trying to hide the truth from her.

"Sorry, I've been having a hard time at home and have been going out for longer runs at night." Phew, at least she has a way to tell him to give Plagg a rest now. She puts her hand on his shoulder.

"Chaton, you can always come talk to me about this. But you need to give yourself a break. Plagg too! No doubt it's hard for him to keep up the transformation for so long." He nods at her, taking in her words.

"Ok, I will M'Lady. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise, I'm only trying to make sure you're ok. It's alright to go out for runs to get away, but don't overtire yourself to the point I can see it behind your mask." She casually flicks his bell and notices a gradual red dust his cheeks. Cute.

They finish the route shortly afterwards, with Chat Noir saying goodbye and heading off, hopefully towards his home. She waits at the foot of the Eiffel tower, looking up at the stars in the night sky and breathing in the fresh air. She finds it quite calming going out and breathing the air at night, as she thinks it's coldness is refreshing.

After a few minutes, she leaps out towards her home, absentmindedly worried about Chat. She forgot last night as to the real reason why he kept coming over. To escape his home. She knew her kitty well enough to know that. Maybe instead of treating this as a Ladybug problem though, she could work at things from both sides. Try and be a figure of guidance and advice as his partner, and a person who cares and tends to him as Marinette. 

She swings back to her home, nearly landing on the balcony before seeing her bedroom light on, with Chat playing around in her room. She panics, swinging over another roof before crouching down in the park. Why was that stupid cat there?!?! She JUST told him to go home and rest. Her palm hits her forehead as she looks around for a place to detransform. She decides to quickly swing over to an alleyway just near the side entrance for her house, and luckily they have a key under the mat there. She finds it and silently sneaks in, making sure to shut and lock the door behind her. She creeps up to the kitchen, grabs a plate and tosses a handful of cheeses and pastries on their to give herself an excuse as to why she was downstairs, and quietly heads up to her room.

Her head pokes up, seeing the tail swishing on her Chaise. Chat's ears prick up as she closes the door and places the tray of food on the end of the chaise.

"Hey Chat. Sorry for not being here, I was making a plate downstairs." She gestures to the pastries and cheese in hand.

"Not a problem Marinette!" He beams at her.

"Why don't we go up and sit on my bed for the movie this time? That way you don't have to carry me if I fall asleep. Thank you for that, by the way." He only nods and gives her a reassuring smile.

"Anytime princess."

They go up to her bed and Marinette's about to put on a movie before an idea comes to her. She shuts her laptop, much to Chat's surprise, and puts it beside her.

"You know what, we watch movies and talk about things but I don't really know anything about the reason you come over."

"It's to see you!" She gives him a side look and sees his shoulders slump in defeat. "Ok, sorry. It's... It's because of my home life."

"What's wrong at home?"

He looks at her, and she can see his eyes become glassy as he tries to think of what to say. "Home is lonely. I'm all alone there, and I can't do anything about it. That's why I'm so glad to have been chosen as the Cat miraculous holder," he fondly twirls the ring on his finger, "becoming Chat Noir has given me so much. It's given me a companion, my partner and probably closest friend, as well as the choice to leave whenever I want. People say they need Chat Noir, and I'm no exception."

Marinette listens to his response in silence, taking his words in. Another idea prompts in her head, and she tells Chat to lie down as she sits next to his head. She starts playing with his hair and asks him questions to keep him distracted.

"What's your favourite sport?"

Chat looks a bit surprised when she starts to play with his hair but sinks into the feeling, and closes his eyes. "Fencing. I have a few friends I've made from doing it, and I get to see them most days."

"What's your favourite colour?"

"Blue, like Ladybug's eyes." Marinette blushes at that.

"What's your favourite animal?"

"Dogs." He opens one eye to see Marinette's shocked face, only to laugh. "I'm joking, it's cats obviously."

"Ha ha very funny. Favourite movie?"

"This one my mother starred in."

"Food?"

"Sweets, although I'm not allowed them."

"Non-domestic animal?"

"Pandas. They're cute."

Marinette starts to slow the questioning, pausing for thought. She's hoping due to his fatigue and current position that he drifts off soon. She continues questioning him until it happens.

"Favourite board game?"

No response except for a small whistling coming out of his mouth. Marinette takes great care trying to get up out of her bed without waking him, before heading to her closet. She's lucky she's into making Chat Noir costumes, because she has a spare Chat Noir mask lying around. She quickly grabs it, heads back up to her bed and gently places it over Chat's own mask. Once it's on, she takes Chat's ring off, making sure his clothes are hidden so she can't see anything revealing, and as soon as his transformation let's go, puts the ring back on him.

Plagg spirals out of the ring, immediately diving for the cheese. "Hi Marinette! I knew you'd rescue me! And with so much cheese." His eyes spell the word glutton as they devour the cheese before actually touching it. Tikki jumps out from nowhere and spins him around. Marinette knew she secretly wanted to see him.

"Good thinking Marinette, to make him sleep like that was a very smart idea." Tikki praises her as Marinette knows the real reason she's being praised.

"No problem Tikki. Now, you two can enjoy yourselves, I too am going to catch up on some much needed sleep." She grabs a spare blanket and her cat pillow from her bed and rests herself on the Chaise. She looks up at the boy sleeping in her bed with fondness and hopes this is the kind of care he needs. She's left wondering how he'll react in the morning, but for now, she goes to sleep with a smile on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Easter everyone!


	4. The Arcade Gamer

Blinking her eyes open, she notices that she's lying on her chaise. Weird. She stretches out, having had a good night sleep for the first time that week. She yawns as she gathers her stuff from the chaise, dragging it up to her bed. She climbs up, putting her cat pillow on her bed before reaching across the blankets, allowing herself to climb back into her own bed.

Except her bed is exceptionally warm. And breathing.

That's when she remembers last night.

"Oh my GOD!"

She panics, sitting up franticly and pulling her blanket with her, revealing the cat boy sleeping peacefully. Luckily, the mask was still firmly on his face. Unluckily, his shirt was not on, and she could see every definition of muscle on his toned bod- NOPE!

She was not about to fantasise about her partner after seeing this! She had spent a year rejecting him, she can't just pretend his body would suddenly change that. It would be horrible to Chat too. She quickly throws the blanket on him again.

Taking a second to breathe and rid herself of certain thoughts, she presses on his shoulder to wake him up.

"Chat. Chat... Wake up." She pushes him hard enough that finally wakes up with a jolt. He looks up at her, vulnerability in his eyes as he realises where he is.

"I need to go."

He jumps up before noticing the cold feeling on his chest and the red on Marinette's cheeks. He sees his bare hand before taking a big breath. This is fine. Everything is fine.

"Don't worry. I took your ring off and fed the cat thing that came out. I thought you would be more comfortable. Also, I put a mask on you before I did so. Your identity is still safe."

She looks so earnestly at Chat that his heart melts at the sincerity. He felt much more calm, thanking her internally that she was so pure and thoughtful.

"Thank you, Marinette. It means a lot to me." As both of them are still sitting on the bed, he grabs her hand and kisses it. As he bends down, Marinette sees his eyes, his normal, emerald eyes, staring back at hers with intent. She feels her breath hitch as butterflies gather in her stomach for a split second before dissipating. It's a moment before Chat calls for his transformation and takes the fake mask off. He opens the pane before Chat says, "I'll be back tonight, if that's ok?"

"Y-yeah, of course." She stammers out.

He winks before jumping into the morning air, leaving Marinette to distractedly get dressed and stumble her way to school.

She meets Alya on the steps who luckily breaks her from her trance.

"Marinette! Hey girl, are you ok? Looking a little dazed there."

"Uh huh, I'm ok. Guess just had a weird dream?"

"Oh, ok! Did you see my LadyBlog update? With a picture like that, you cannot tell me they're not dating!" Marinette shakes her head as they walk up the stairs to their classroom. She swears most of her conversations with Alya tip into this topic.

"Alya, I don't think their relationship status has changed from the last time Ladybug said so." 

"No trust me this time," she scoots straight over to her seat, shrugging her bag off and grabbing out her phone with exaggerated movements. "One of my viewers got a really good close up of them as they stopped on the roof across from his window. He sent in this photo." She shows the photo she has been talking about to Marinette as she excitedly points at Ladybugs eyes. "See that?"

"What?"

"Her eyes."

"What about her eyes?"

The two don't notice Adrien and Nino come in and sit in front of them, the boys also stuck in their own conversation.

"Her eyes say everything! She is so in love with him."

"Alya, her eyes captured in a low definition picture at night do not say anything but 'I care for you as a partner'."

Alya huffs, tutting at her. "Girl, you don't know true love when you see it. I'm telling you," Raising her voice, "Ladybug is in love with Chat Noir!"

At this point, both boys have noticed the conversation behind them, stopping their own conversation to watch the outcome. Marinette tries to get Alya to see as she continues to put forth her own argument. "Alya, just because Chat has nice abs does not mean that Ladybug would immediately fall for him! There's personality too, and he's just not her personality type, even though he's a great person!"

All three of them stare at Marinette as she finally realises the two boys are also listening. Still staring 5 seconds later, Alya with an open mouth, Marinette's eyebrows raise as she questions them all.

"What?"

"You-"

"Chat-"

"Abs?" Nino sounds the most confused, but his response makes Marinette's eyes open wide. Oh no.

"You think Chat Noir has nice abs!?" Alya practically screams at her. "Girl, WHEN did you see them?" Marinette's face only gets red as she slumps down into her chair, stunning Alya. "I only meant that as a joke, but that reaction means only one thing... Marinette Dupain-Cheng, what are you doing seeing Chat Noir's abs and how can I get a picture, there are a lot of bloggers wanting pics of those."

Marinette's eyes peek through her hands up at Alya, who's trying to stop the big grin from appearing on her face. She's revelling in this. Marinette just buries her head further into her arms, muffling her voice as she tells her, "He's been coming to my balcony. We have small chats."

"And occasionally show abs."

"Alya!" Marinette scolds her as she hears Nino hysterically laughing in front of them. Adrien is chuckling a bit too, but not as much.

"Sorry girl, I just didn't know Ladybug had competition for Chat's heart." She fist bumps Nino as both Adrien and Marinette's heads duck down.

"Chat only has eyes for Ladybug, trust me." Knowing her best friend, she wasn't going to let this up unless Marinette owned it. "Ok I admit, he has nice abs alright. But I found out in a perfectly NORMAL way, I didn't just feel him up out of the blue, and he's been coming to my balcony because he accidentally broke my pot plants and he feels sorry about it. That's why a superhero is visiting me, happy?"

Alya nods. "You owe me an interview."

"Fine." She notices Adrien pulling away from the conversation and feels bad. "H-hey Adrien? Ok are- I mean are you ok?"

He doesn't respond, seeming to be zoned out. Marinette waves her hand in front of his face, seeing him break out of it and look up at her. She just waves at him again, receiving a meek wave back before his face starts going red and he turns around. Weird.

Alya also notices, eyes jumping out even more than before. Leaning down to Nino, she whispers, "What is happening with this world... Am I dreaming? Nino quick pinch me."

"No."

"Fine I'll do it myself." Mlle Bustier comes in at that moment, disrupting the conversation, much to the pleasure of Marinette and Adrien.

***

After classes have ended, Alya quickly pulls Marinette aside, still talking about Adrien's reaction to her this morning. Marinette, whether it's from a lack of sleep or from this morning's conversation, is a bit irritable at all this talk, so simply tells Alya to watch her. Alya, stunned, stands back and watches Marinette go up to Adrien and tap him on the back.

Steeling herself, Marinette takes Chat's advice, and just decides to go for it. Adrien won't know anything about her crush if she doesn't tell him. He turns around, his face instantly becoming a bit red. It's now or never.

"Hi Adrien! Do you- do you um want to hang out with me at lunch?"

She can feel her breath hitch as she waits for an answer. Watching his face for an answer, she sees Adrien's cheeks flame up and wonders if he's coming down with a cold.

Meanwhile, Adrien is panicking inside. Everytime he looks at Marinette, he just remembers her comment about him. He's heard comments about his body before, he's a model, but he never realised how it would feel coming from a friend. And coming from Marinette, it felt so much more intense.

"I'm really sorry Marinette but I was feeling a bit sick, so I was planning to go home and stay there for the rest of the day." He sees her lips form an o shape as her shoulders slump. Oh no, he just made her sad. "UM BUT, I would love to another time? If that's ok?" Her head lifts up again, smiling again. He smiles back at her, thankful he didn't hurt his friend's feelings. He waves a goodbye to her and the other two as he exits the classroom.

Marinette starts to feel a bit better knowing he still wanted to hang out. She feels Alya slapping her on the back.

"Girl! I'm so proud of you! Nino I'm telling you, something is seriously wrong today."

"I heard you."

The three go to lunch, having a good talk for an hour before heading back to the classroom. They all see a blonde head lying on his desk. Marinette immediately assumes the worst. He only said that so he wouldn't have to hang out with her.

"Adrien dude, what are you doing here? I thought you were sick!"

Adrien's head pops back up as he sees the three, most importantly Marinette. Knowing immediately what she must be thinking, he piped up to explain.

"I did go home, but father didn't let me stay home. I was sent back, but it's ok, I'm feeling a bit better."

"Are you sure?" Marinette pitches in, "You didn't look so good when you left."

"Yeah, I'm sure. In fact, are you free this afternoon?"

"Me?"

"Yeah! All of you! Let's go out somewhere. I'll talk to Nathalie, she'll let me for one day."

Woops from Nino as he slaps Adrien on the back as Alya looks at Marinette in eagerness. Marinette smiles at the thought of Adrien having an afternoon free with his friends, he never seems to have one of them.

Adrien remembers Marinette's crush on a guy, and whilst he might not be able to help her as Chat, he may be able to give her opportunities as Adrien. Once Alya and Nino have started a conversation between themselves, he sidles up to Marinette.

"Hey Marinette, you can invite anyone else you want to invite. It doesn't just have to be us four." He gives her a reassuring grin, holding himself back from winking. Marinette gives him an unusual look, questioning his motives.

"Ok, thanks..." 

Marinette brushes off the question, waiting for the afternoon to arrive.

***

Afternoon arrives and the four are heading to the nearby arcade.

"Adrien dude! You gotta play me on dance dance revolution."

"And he has to play whack-a-mole with me. OH and the claw!"

"Don't worry guys, I'll play with both of you, but why don't you also use this as an opportunity for a date! I know you haven't been out much lately."

Alya's eyebrows raise before she looks at Nino with a sly grin. Nino, unaware, doesn't know what idea is forming in his girlfriend's mind, but he knows that it probably has to do with Marinette and Adrien. It isn't long before the four of them get there, and Alya runs off with Nino in tow.

"I thought you wanted to play whack-a-mole with Adri-"

"Look!" She turns him around to see Marinette and Adrien talking with each other, probably one of the smoothest conversations they've had. "I don't know what happened to Marinette, but some of her attention has been shifted to Chat Noir, which means she's a bit more easy going with Adrien. If you and me leave Marinette and Adrien alone..."

"Oh... Good thinking babe!"

"I know."

Marinette is aware of Alya's plan as soon as she drags Nino away and smiles at her best friend, gratefully. Turning to Adrien, she sees him looking around in awe.

"I've never been to an arcade."

"Actually!?" He shakes his head. "Oh my god, ok. You and me are going to play all the games we can in an afternoon." She drags him over to the basketball game as he happily tags along, chuckling at her strength and determination.

"Do you know what this is?"

"It looks like a basketball game?"

"Precisely." She grabs two coins from her purse and smirks at Adrien. "Are you ready to battle a pro?"

Adrien's very intrigued with her confidence and smirks back "Guess we'll see about that." He gestures for her to start the game. Marinette turns around and flings the coins in the slots, grabbing the basketball as Adrien approaches his.

"3, 2, 1, Shoot!"

It's 90 seconds of straight shooting. Adrien thinks he's doing relatively ok, missing only a few shots and shooting at a relatively constant pace. He finishes after the 90 seconds and checks his score. Then he looks over to Marinette's score and his mouth drops.

She more than doubled his score. How-

"I told you. I'm a pro." She flips her hair and laughs at herself. Adrien looks at her with awe and hears his heart beat a bit a faster, if only for a split second. He gathers himself and laughs with her, trying to distract himself from his own faltering heartbeat.

"You really are Marinette! Congratulations." Her cheeks turn a bit pink and both of them look away from each other, a bit flustered. They move on to another game, this time it's a motorbike game. Adrien's never had more fun in an afternoon and wonders how it would feel to be able to do this whenever he wanted. Him and Marinette don't notice when Alya takes photos of them, but they do have a lot of fun playing as many arcade games as they can fit in.

***

"TIKKI! Did you see me today!"

"I did Marinette! I'm proud of you." She nuzzles up to Marinette's cheek as Marinette does a little dance, proud of her limited stuttering and confidence in front of Adrien.

"We had so much fun! It was so good. It was so easy. I should've done this ages ago, I don't know why I didn't before. I have to thank Chat..." She immediately thinks of Chat and pauses her celebrations, reminded of the look in his eyes this morning. She didn't forget the feeling.

She shrugs off the feeling as the kwami reminds her that Chat would be coming over. She needs to still do her homework, knowing she definitely won't be doing it when he gets there. She rushes over to her desk to start working. After a few hours and dinner with her parents, she makes two hot chocolates to bring up to her room.

She puts the hot chocolates on the table, letting Tikki take a few sips out of hers while she finishes the rest of her homework and catches up on a bit of reading. As she's reading, she hears a tap on her skylight. She immediately goes up to her bed to open it for him when she sees the pain in his eyes. He jumps down and she doesn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him.

"Hey, hey, it'll be alright. Chat, listen to me-" She doesn't get far before he's hugging her back, his shallow breaths on her neck make her hyper aware that he has been recently crying. Her poor kitty.

"Chat?" He looks up at her. "What's wrong?"

Chat pulls back, his head drooping as he looks at his hands. "My father is very strict. I did something today that he did not approve of, even though it's a perfectly normal thing for a teenager to do, and he threatened to take me out of school."

"What? But that's horrible."

"Yeah, I'm aware. I'm already on lockdown enough as it is. He likes micromanaging my life. I get no freedom, except this suit, but when he sees me having freedom he immediately takes it away."

It all clicks in Marinette's mind as to why Chat loves being Chat. A new depth of understanding for her partner has been breached, and she feels more protective of him.

She places a hand on his shoulder and gently massages him there. "While you're calming down, I want you to know that my skylight always stays open. You can pop in anytime you want or need a friend to talk to. And you can stay over anytime you need." She gives him a slightly cheeky look. "I still have the fake mask here."

"Thanks Marinette. That means more than you know."

She decides to put on the movie they were meant to watch the night before, Into the Woods, and snuggles into Chat Noir, who graciously accepts the snuggling by placing his head on hers. Though silent, they both acknowledge the fact that they have become quite close in the past day or so.

After sitting like that for a while, Chat again initiates conversation.

"Your parents seem like really nice people. I've seen them a couple of times in the shop."

"You've visited here?"

"Of course! Your parents make only the best pastries in the world. M'Lady brought me some one day, and they were worth breaking my diet."

"Diet? You're already so skinny, why do you need a diet?"

"My father likes me to be in shape. I sort of reflect on his image, and god forbid if I am the one to tarnish it."

Marinette's heart sinks at that. His father sounded like a horrible person, and yet Chat is one of the most loving and caring individuals in the world. "You remind me of a friend of mine. His dad is reputable, and Adrien has to live in a perfect image or else he gets reprimanded. Sometimes his dad threatens to take him out of school, other times his freedom is even more cut down. It depresses me because as a friend, I can't do anything but give him my support. And yet, like you, he turned out to be one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm glad I met him, and I'm glad I met you Chat."

Chat's grip around Marinette has become tighter as he hears her say this, the meaning so much more than she could know because she's talking to both sides. He smiles to himself hearing her saying this.

"Thanks, princess. I'm glad I met you too. These past few nights have been the best in my life, just because someone else was here. Because I have a close friend now."

Marinette beams at him. "Aww, the cat's gone soft." She teases him, only to see him chuckle and sigh. He doesn't know it, but she's enjoyed his company too, and to see him smile more makes her feel like she's doing her job as a partner, looking out for him. Chat and Marinette continue to watch the movie before a thought occurs to Chat.

"Hey Marinette."

"Mhmm?"

"How did things go... with that boy you liked? Did you end up talking to him?"

Marinette jumps out of his arms and turns to face him, a massive smile on her face. "Yes I did! I talked to him, and it was more than just a sentence, and we had a really good time. I actually spoke to him. And it was all thanks to your advice." She pokes him as he gives a half-hearted laugh.

"My advice?"

"Yeah! I thought 'if he doesn't know then he'll never give me a chance' so I just walked up to him and asked him to hang out. He rejected me but he said that we could hang out sometime soon, so that's a plus."

Chat's feels his heart sink as Marinette continues the story. He's still confused as to who it could be, but he's sure she probably asked him while he was travelling home.

"That's great Marinette!"

"I know!"

Her smile reaches her eyes and he can tell, she loves this boy with her whole heart. It makes him feel a bit weird inside, losing his breath slightly. He feels weak.

"I'm sorry Marinette, but I'm a bit tired. I'm going to head home early for tonight if that's alright."

"Of course Chat. Is everything ok?"

No. "Yes."

He quickly opens the skylight and leaps out, closing it and propelling himself towards his home.

At home, Chat detransforms and there's Adrien, standing in his pyjamas and scratching his head, making his scruffy hair more ragged. Plagg immediately zips towards his beloved cheese leaving Adrien to ponder over his thoughts.

Marinette likes another guy. He's so glad for her. Yet why does he feel so annoyed? He feels hurt, and sad, all because she likes someone else that's not him. Was it because he felt special after she had complimented Chat that morning, and that's why he thought maybe she would have changed her mind.

No, there's no way she could've changed it that quickly. And he doesn't even like her in that way, he likes Ladybug. He just likes his time with Marinette. It's relaxing and comforting.

He goes to sleep, concluding that he's sad because he doesn't want his special evenings with Marinette to disappear. 

It's the only reason that makes sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien doesn't realise because it's canon that he's a dumbass :)
> 
> I'm surprised I finished this so quickly considering my rate of work rn, but hope everyone is staying safe and happy


	5. The Curious Cat

Waking up refreshed from the early night turn in, Adrien jumps out of bed to see Plagg missing from his resting place. Not missing a moment, he flings open the cheese cupboard to see the kwami freeze, his mouth full of cheese.

"Plagg! I told you to at least wait until I'm up before eating cheese. I'm not an endless supply of cheese."

"First of all kid, I'm the god of destruction, I can destroy this cheese with my mouth if I want. Second, you basically are an endless supply. You know why you're my favourite owner?"

"I know, I give you the most cheese and as frequent as you want."

"Not only that, but you also care enough about my dietary requirements to get me my one true love." He floats to the air, holding a slice of cheese above his head. "Camembert!"

Adrien, done with his shenanigans, just shakes his head and closes the door. It isn't long before he's dressed, eaten and walking up the school stairs. He sees his friends, Nino, Alya and Marinette, sitting around. He looks at Marinette and feels a small pang in his chest, reminding him of last night. She likes someone, he knew that. She likes someone else, he knew that too. He's happy for her, he just thought he would also be a special part of her life as Chat. He hopes that doesn't go away. That's it.

"Hey Adrien!" Marinette's voice breaks him from his trance before realising he's walked over to them. Alya and Nino turn to look at him.

"Hey buddy, you alright?"

Adrien nods. "Yeah I'm fine! How are you guys?"

They all share some small talk before Alya drags Nino away, stating something to do with homework. Marinette turns to him and her face goes slightly red, oh no. Did he do something wrong again?

"Hey Adrien, I was wondering if wanted you to go grab something- wait I mean, you wanted to grab something- no I'm sorry I mean-"

He quickly places his hands on Marinette's shoulders, feeling her panic rise and hearing her breaths shorten. "Marinette, look at me." She tries focusing her eyes on his but she's still slightly panicking. "Marinette, just take a deep breath. Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it, then say it in one breath. Ok?" She nods. "Ok. When you're ready."

She takes a few moments before taking a breath. Her blue eyes latch their gaze onto his own and she says in a quick breath, "Do you want to grab something to eat with me at lunch?"

Adrien smiles. "Of course! Did you guys already talk about this?"

"We? Oh no I meant just... You and I..." She looks down at her feet, leaving Adrien confused. Does she know? Or does she need some more help asking this boy out and she thought Adrien could help her with that? In a moment, a million thoughts rush to his head, but the most prominent one shocks him with it's malice intent.

_I don't want to help her ask out another guy._

He stutters for a moment before he makes up an excuse. "I'm sorry, I forgot that my dad grounded me for going out yesterday. Nathalie will be picking me up at lunch."

"Oh no! I'm so sorry-"

"No don't apologise Marinette! I enjoyed yesterday a lot! It was the most fun I've had in a long while. Especially with you, but I just can't hang out today." She nods in acceptance, understanding his reason. She meekly bows her head and says she's going to head up to class, leaving Adrien feeling bad.

He walks up to class to see Marinette talking with another student just outside, and he wonders if it could be that student. If he's honest, he has no clue who Marinette could possibly like, making him feel clueless and lost. Does he just not know her as well as he thought.

He files into the class, his mood worsening by the second. He doesn't understand why this is affecting him so much, sure Marinette's a great friend but it's not as if he has a crush on her. He likes his Lady, and he's committed to her. Marinette comes in and he holds his breath as she passes, giving him a small look before going to her desk.

He sits around, maintaining small talk with Nino for a few minutes before hearing his name. Well, not his name...

"Oh please, you so have a crush on the cat."

Marinette hushes her voice, but her urgency is still heard. "Alya I swear to you, I do NOT have a crush on Chat Noir. You know who I have a crush on."

"Girl, it's fine to have two crushes. As long as you don't two time them, that could be a problem."

"Look, I appreciate him a lot," at this point her voice is a bit louder, allowing Adrien and Nino to both hear her quite clearly, "I believe as a hero, Chat Noir should get much more recognition than he does. He saves Ladybug, he's her rock. He talks to civilians, making sure they're ok. He even helps them after akumas with random things, such as handing out posters about lost pets, or just transporting them in general. He cares so much about the citizens, but only those who have been personally saved by him seem to understand that which breaks my heart. He is such a good person for the upbringing he had, and I'll be damned if anyone tells Ladybug she can do her job without him because she can't, BUT I do not have a crush on him. I simply appreciate him. A lot." She folds her arms with a huff as Alya smirks.

"I don't know Mari, I think you pay a lot of attention to him. Especially if you knew all that information off the top of your head, that's heaps of research right there." She taps her head, "I'm a reporter, I would know."

Marinette just sinks into her seat before Nino pipes in. "Hey, I think Chat Noir is awesome! He's great to talk to-" Alya gives him a look, "-I mean, the times he was nearby and saved me, he was a great help. I totally understand what you mean Marinette."

Marinette unfolds her arms. "He's a very good listener and cares about so much, but I'm pretty sure it's because he's sad. I can see it in his eyes. It's the reason he keeps coming back to my balcony, he needs a friend." She turns to look at Alya. "That's why I've been inviting him back over. He needs a friend, and if I can help one of our superheroes, no matter what way, then I will. Don't get me wrong, I don't pity him, I do like his company a lot, but I'm trying to be his friend, not lover."

"Ok fine. That's very admirable Marinette, I'm proud of you girl! You still owe me an interview-"

"I know."

"Good."

Adrien watches this interaction paying special attention to Marinette's words. He's genuinely surprised and amazed that she payed that much attention to him, and he's grateful to know that she wants to be his friend too. His heart lightens a bit, knowing how much Marinette cares about him, even if it's his alter ego. It still counts. He turns in his seat, smiling to himself and feeling a bit better after this mornings thoughts. Class starts, and he pushes everything out of his head to focus properly.

***

"Hello M'Lady." Ladybug swings up to their meeting place with a bright smile as Chat greets her.

"Hello Chat, how are you feeling?"

"I'm ok." The tone of his voice gives Ladybug reason to believe he's lying, but she lets it go knowing he won't speak unless ready. Just in case, she tells them to do the long route separately to cover more ground faster that night in order to give them time to talk later if they need.

"Hey Chat, let's start at different ends of the route and work our way to the middle, it will save time and we can chat later."

"Ok M'Lady. I'll start this way then. See you soon." He gives her a salute as he jumps off, leaving her to wonder about her kitty before leaping off to do her half.

After an hour of leaping about the both come together. She always hates doing the route alone. It's lonely and makes an hour go much longer than doing two hours with Chat, but she wanted to make sure they'd have proper time to talk afterwards. They both meet and swing around to their original place, sitting on the flat roof top and lying on their backs, looking at the stars. Ladybug knows this is a sure-fire way to make Chat open up, as he always starts to talk when he's in deep thought. They sit there staring for a while before Chat sits up, prompting Ladybug to follow and wait for him to start.

"M'Lady what is love?"

For the first time, Ladybug sat there stunned for words. She stares at Chat as stares off at the ground.

"I'm confused, you want to know what love is?"

"Yes."

"Well it really depends on the person."

Chat ponders on that for a moment. "Why do you like him?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Why do you like the guy you have a crush on."

Ladybug takes a deep breath. "Are you sure you want to know?" He nods. "Ok. Um, well... the reason I like him was because of one of our first encounters." She leans back on her palms and thinks. "He was so kind to me when I didn't deserve it. He respects everyone around him, and he's always honest. Every time I'm around him, I stutter and can't speak to him properly. He makes me smile when I think about him."

Chat thinks on this before asking her, "How do you know you love him?"

"I just said-"

"I know you said that you stutter and smile because of him, but does that mean you love him?"

"I think it does. I don't do it around anyone else."

Pause.

"Just because you don't do it around anyone else doesn't mean you love him. To me, it sounds like you admire him." Ladybug sits in silence for a bit, listening to his words, wanting to fight him on it.

But she can't.

"M'Lady, it sounds like when you define love, you think about that guy but I want you to do something for me." He scoots over to sit behind her, placing his hands on her shoulder and inclining her to look at the sky. "Look at the stars, forget about him, and now tell me. What is love? How would you define it?"

She stares at the sky for a long while before forming an answer. "To me, I would say love is about someone who is constantly on your mind. Someone who makes it worth it, who you would do anything for just to be in their life. You want them to be proud of you, because their validation is better than anyone elses. It should be someone you can trust with your entire being and someone that you would fight for, to make sure they are never taken for granted. That's what I think love is."

"Beautiful LB. Thank you."

He kisses her cheek and lets go. Before she knows it, he's gone, her breath taken away as she remains on the roof to think about what he just said.

_You admire him._

She thinks over everything she's done for Adrien. She made him a scarf, that was out of love right? She got him back into school, and she gave him her lucky bracelet. She also stalked him when Lila was going to his place, and she stole his phone, and she keeps a schedule of his activities... Oh.

Marinette gulps as she realises she may not understand love. She doesn't know if she ever understood it at all. Stalking and obsessing over someone isn't love. Her breathing is shallow as she realises all that she's done hasn't been out of love but rather obsession and admiration. Yes, she thought about him a lot, but if she was honest, she didn't know anything about him. He was a closed book and didn't reveal much to her, so how could she possibly love and trust him.

She hugs her knees on the roof top as she realises that her attempts to date him have been futile. She never even knew him that well, why would he agree to date her? She was kidding herself.

Out of frustration, she does another short round of the city, tiring herself out before heading home.

***

Chat hears Ladybug's words and commends her articulation on the matter. He kisses her cheek out of friendship and leaves to think about what she's just said.

Someone who consumes his thoughts.

Someone you would do anything for.

Someone who you want to be in their life.

Someone you trust.

He's torn. The reason he started asking Ladybug was because he was confused but this only made him more confused. He doesn't know if he loves Ladybug or Marinette.

He knows that he's going to need a lot more time to think on it, and he can't just see Marinette tonight after thinking about this, so he decides to go to hers to tell her out of courtesy. When he arrives, he sees her light off, but notices she's not in bed. Maybe she's out or she's downstairs with her parents. Just in case, he sneaks in and sure enough, she's not there. He finds a pad of paper and writes down a quick note before scribbling it out, writing something by accident. He panics and writes another note before hearing a noise downstairs and rushing out, leaving the note on her bed where he knows she'll see it.

He pounces out, bounding for home for an early turn in again, or so he thinks. As soon as he gets home, he lies on the bed, frustrated. Both girls consume his thoughts. He would do anything for both of them. He wants both of them to be in his life. He trusts both of them.

His thoughts turn to Marinette's outburst in class this morning and he smiles. Who knew she would pay attention so much, especially from so little time spent with her. His heart beats a bit faster, and he thinks about why he loved Ladybug. He remembers the note he wrote Marinette and threw out, the way he reacted when Ladybug talked about her crush, the way he didn't want Marinette to go after her crush and it all comes together.

A giddy smile forms on his face.

Meanwhile, after her run, Ladybug returns home. She jumps in her skylight whilst detransforming, but the light of her transformation falls on a note.

_Dear Princess,_   
_I won't be coming tonight, I'm sorry. I would've said this in_   
_purr-son but you weren't here. I'm fine I just have something_   
_to do, but I'll be here tomorrow night!_   
_Don't have too much fun without me,_   
_Chat_

Marinette smiles at the cat's note, noticing his neat hand writing. She didn't think he'd write like this, but people surprise you everyday. She jumps down to her desk, still getting over the fact that her love for Adrien is quite shallow and wondering what to do about it. Her head falls in her hands but immediately picks back up at the mess left on her desk. Chat. She smiles and shakes her head, he may have neat handwriting but he is a mess.

She picks up the pens on her desk and puts them back, doing the same with the papers before seeing something fallen on the floor. She picks it up and opens it to the same neat handwriting.

_Dear Princess,_   
_I'm really sorry but I won't be coming tonight. I'm also sorry for leaving_   
_suddenly yesterday, I wasn't feeling too well. Just know that I_   
_trust you a lot and I appreciate that you take me in. It's nice_   
_having a friend like you who I can be myself with. You're still_   
_the only person in the world who knows I like mew-sicals, and_   
_you're the only person in the world that I'd feel comfortable_   
_with watching them with. You're also the only person in the_   
_world that knows about Plagg (the cheese loving black cat_   
_that came out of my ring) other than Ladybug, which is still_   
_funny to me. You're the only person I love enough to_

The note ends there with a big scribble over it, but it's enough for Marinette to smile as something clicks. That's why he asked. She remembers her interactions with Chat as Marinette and smiles, knowing fully well that Alya was right this morning.

She loves Chat Noir. Marinette loves Chat Noir. Ladybug loves Chat Noir.

Oh how that would feed his ego.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm so sorry this was late, I took a break from everything for a couple days but I'm back to studying and writing so don't fret!
> 
> Also, I'm really looking forward to writing the next chapter, if that's any hint *wink*


	6. The Comforting Friend

Marinette, despite having quite an easy night rest last night, still wakes up late for her classes. Tikki yet again has to wake her up yet again, leaving Marinette not knowing what she'd do without the small creature beside her. She rushes around in her usual panic, giving her Maman and Papa brief kisses on the cheek before rushing out the door.

She fastens her strap on her bag as she nears the school and sees Adrien walking up the front stairs. For a moment, her heart picks up, but she remembers the conversation she had with Chat last night and he was right. She did admire Adrien, and she was proud to call him a friend, but did that necessarily mean she loved him? Her shoulders relax as she also remembers the crumpled note she found. She knows who she loves, who she should have loved from the beginning.

She walks up to Adrien, who hasn't noticed her, and taps his shoulder. He looks over his shoulder to see Marinette attempting a smile and has a mini panic attack. He's not ready to see her after last night, but now here she is ripping the band-aid off. He quickly gives her a grin as she says something, but unfortunately he's not paying enough attention to what she's saying, noticing the colour of her eyes. Electric blue. Striking.

She's still talking as they're walking up the steps, but it's like he's taking her in for the first time. How did he miss her? She starts to laugh and he takes in the beautiful sight in front of him. He's still gazing at her when he feels his foot catch on the edge of the stairs as he lurches forward, arms reaching for him but not fast enough as his hands graze the ground.

"Oh my god, are you ok Adrien?!" Her hand reaches out as she looks at him, concerned. He just smiles and laughs it off, which leads to Marinette joining him. She grabs his hand and brings him to a standing position. "Falling for me already?"

"Yeah, pretty hard."

Marinette's face goes red as he just realised what he said. If he was Chat he would wink after it, but he's not Chat right now, which meant Marinette thought Adrien said that to her. Uh Oh.

"Um- I meant-"

"No it's fine! Hahaha I get that, a joke on top of a joke." She gives him finger guns as he breathes easy. Thank god she didn't look too much into it. They continue to talk as they get to the entrance of their classroom to see a brawl occurring. Verbally.

"Adrikins is MINE Rossi!"

"Oh please! He doesn't even like you, he's just too nice to tell you no. He likes me, I'm the only one he's invited home."

"You don't know half the things I know about him!"

"You haven't done half the things I've done with him!"

"DON'T TOUCH MY ADRIKINS YOU WITCH-"

At that point Marinette pulls Adrien out of the doorway and walks him towards the library. "You don't need to see that. I'm sorry if it's uncomfortable for you, I never realised how it could feel to be scrutinised and idolised like that." She looks at him almost guilty, which confuses him, as if she had a part in their argument.

"Don't worry Marinette. As long as I have good friends like you and Nino and Alya, I'm ok." He tries to smile before realising her hand is holding his own, and he internally combusts. He's head over heels for this girl and it's only been one day. He has to tell her.

They walk into the library to sit down whilst a few thoughts go through Adrien's head. Firstly, he really wants to date Marinette, but he needs to make sure he is over Ladybug first. Secondly, he doesn't think it's a good idea to date her as Chat Noir, as there is a risk of his identity being leaked, and if not leaked, he would be very tempted to tell her. He doesn't think he'd be able to come to school everyday and sit in front of her knowing he could be holding her hand. That would be the hardest part of dating her.

And then there's the third point. Marinette's crush.

Last he knew, she was having a good time with him and was happy. He still has no clue who it is, but he's determined to find out who. He makes a point of staying close to Marinette the whole day, not knowing if his intention is to talk to her more or look for the 'other guy'.

"I know class is soon, I just thought it would be better to not go in there until we absolutely have to-"

"Yeah, I prefer hanging out here anyways." He reassures Marinette, who smiles graciously back at him.

"Well, to waste some time do you want to look for some books? They're always good to, you know... waste time with..." She looks endearingly awkward, making Adrien swoon with affection. Why couldn't he just tell her here and now. This is going to be a lot harder than he thought.

"Yeah! Good idea Mari!"

Adrien walks ahead to the fiction aisle as Marinette's eyebrows raise out of surprise. Adrien had never called her by a nickname before, but she liked it. Maybe it meant she was already starting to be a good friend of his. She smiles at the thought, proud of her improvement of speech around him, and walks his way to the fiction section.

They spend some time in the library talking about some of their favourite novels before they make their way back to the classroom. Luckily everything has died down as they walk in, but Marinette is still tense knowing that Chloe and Lila would be seething to throttle her. But they could do what they like, for Marinette knows she has her eyes on someone else now, someone who is hers and hers alone.

They walk in, engaged in conversation, and those in the class stare and gawk. Alya's squirming in her seat as Nino's mouth is slightly open. Marinette takes her seat as Adrien takes his before Mlle Bustier steps in. In hushed words, Alya gives Marinette a look and whispers, "Girl, what happened?"

Marinette gives her a cheeky look. "Something good." She turns to listen to the class, her full focus on her teacher for the first time in a while.

***

Lunch is starting, and Marinette is feeling a little shaky due to what she now knows as the 'Alya Interrogation Period'. Alya grabs her hand and drags her out to the courtyard, confirming her fears. She sits herself down on a bench, beckoning Marinette to join her before facing her.

"Tell me."

"What?"

"What's going on between you and Adrien?"

"Nothing's going on!" Alya sizes her up, judging on whether she trusts Marinette's word. Marinette rolls her eyes. "Why don't we go sit with them and you'll see, nothing's going on! I'm just a bit more relaxed."

"You could say that again."

The girls walk over to Nino and Adrien to join them for lunch. They're in an animated conversation about Nino's music. As the girls sit, the four of them start to talk about the recent arcade adventure and hopefully trying to plan something when Adrien is not grounded or can get away with it.

"Maybe we should kidnap you."

"Nino, my father would have a literal search party if I was lost for even a minute."

"True."

Adrien's noticing Marinette a lot more, but he's concerned. Her shaky persona and timid looks have all but gone, and now sitting in front of him is the girl he's gotten to know in the past few nights. He's worried at what this could mean, does this mean her subconscious knows he's Chat? That could be problematic.

"What do you think about Chat Noir, Marinette?"

Adrien's eyes flick over to Marinette, wanting to know every thought going through her head at the moment. He sees a blush on her face as she looks down at her lap.

"He's cute-"

"CUTE!"

"I said cool!" Alya's suspicious of her activity, as is Adrien.

"I think I was right when I said Marinette had a crush!"

"Alya stop-"

"So I was right!"

"Alya-"

"Oh my god that's why you've changed! You have a crush on Chat Noir-" Alya's sentence is stopped at the sound of a stool scraping the ground as Marinette briskly walks away from the table. Alya looks at Nino with a grimace, knowing she stepped over the line, but Adrien doesn't notice as he's already walking after Marinette to make sure she's ok.

He follows her to the girls bathroom. He peaks his head around the door to make sure no one else is in there before calling out for her.

"Marinette? It's Adrien. Please come out and talk to me, I want to make sure you're ok. We don't have to go back right now." He hears silence. "Marinette?"

A door opens, and she steps out to look at him. She walks over, head down, before walking out of the bathroom and sitting down outside. He sits down next to her, leaning his head against the wall. The two of them sit there for a couple minutes in silence before Marinette speaks.

"Thank you for checking on me. I just needed to calm down, but it's better when a friend's there with you."

"No problem Mari, I'll always be here for you. Did you want to talk about it?"

She pauses to think for a bit before starting. "I don't like talking about crushes."

"Why not?"

"It's embarrassing! It makes me nervous, and I hate feeling nervous."

"What's so nerve-wracking about it?"

She looks sad as she curls her knees to her chest and places her head on her knees. He wonders how small she is after seeing her curl up like that. "It's nerve-wracking because there's always a chance my crush could hear. And if they hear it and don't like me, then they would reject me. And rejection is hard. It's why I'm never able to tell someone I have a crush on them."

"Is it really that bad if someone rejects you?" Marinette's head turns his direction to look at him. "If they're good enough to capture your attention, then there's no way they'll stop being friends with you. You're too good a person to not be friends with." Marinette's eyes squint as she hears him say that. It feels like deja vu. Adrien doesn't notice as he continues. "There's a girl I used to like for a while, and I confessed to her. A couple times actually. Each time, she rejected me but it was ok, because we still remained friends, and are friends to this day. She's my best friend now."

"You liked Chloe?"

"No what- Oh, no she's not my best friend. Someone else outside of here." He can see Marinette nod at that, looking a bit less sad. His curiosity gets the better of him as he asks the question he's been meaning to ask all day.

"Do you actually like Chat Noir?" Marinette sighs in resignation, then gives a little laugh. "I'm sorry, you don't need to answer-"

"If I tell you, you promise not to tell Alya?" He nods. She unfolds her arms. "I love her, but she can be the loudest person ever, and I have no idea who Chat Noir is, so he could be right next to us and overhear. But to answer your question, yes, I do like him. I said that he's been coming to my balcony, but he's actually been coming for long periods of time. We watch movies together, we talk about our families and favourite things and crushes and he's so nice to talk to. I don't know why but I get the feeling I understand him better than anyone, besides Ladybug, because he's not himself when he's out of the mask."

Adrien is once again amazed at her perceptiveness, but he's not surprised. It's Marinette after all. As he's hearing this, he can feel his heart beating faster and wills his face not to go red, but it doesn't help as she continues.

"I've realised that he's a lot more down to earth than people think he is. A lot of people think he's aloof and doesn't take things seriously, but if anything he's the opposite. I think we're really compatible. And I've noticed as he's come over more, I've been thinking about him more, and wanting to protect him. I worry about him." She pauses for a few moments before laughing to herself. "You know what's crazy?"

"What?"

"I actually had a crush on you a couple days ago. I thought I would never be able to tell you, but now that I like someone else it's become so much easier." She looks over to him and laughs.

He's a goner.

It takes a lot of strength for him to not call his transformation then and there and to whisk her away somewhere he can confess to her. Instead, he has to force himself to laugh with her, feeling his breaths shorten and his heart beat even faster. His head feels light as he grasps the full concept of what she's said to him.

_She loves all of me._

He looks back at Marinette laughing and knows from that moment, he would do anything for her.

"Well, I'm flattered first and foremost, but since you have a new crush, maybe you should use this as an opportunity to try confessing to him. You never know, he could have fallen for you in the few short days you've been hanging out."

"Maybe." She purses her lips, looking excitedly at Adrien. "He's coming again tonight."

"Well then that's perfect timing!"

Marinette nods. "Hey Adrien, thanks for coming to check up on me. I feel so relieved having the weight of my old crush, my new crush and all that off my shoulders. It feels a lot better to tell it to someone."

"No problem Marinette. I'd do anything for you."

***

Later that night, Marinette bounces her knee as she's sitting at her desk waiting for the usually tapping on her skylight. Tikki's happily sitting in her resting place eating a stash of cookies Marinette brought as an apology.

"It's alright Marinette, as long as you're happy, then I'm happy."

"Thank you Tikki." She nuzzles her before hearing the tapping, and both immediately separate. Tikki phases into the drawers as Marinette's stomach turns over. She climbs up to her bed and opens the skylight as Chat slinks in. Both of them spend a moment looking at the other before Chat brings forth a bag.

"I brought some stuff to spice up movie night."

"Oh Chat, you know I've got snacks covered."

He snickers. "No, trust me princess, this is better than snacks."

First he pulls out a selection of Disney movies, which he hand soff to Marinette and tells her to choose her favourite. She flicks through them as he pulls out a portable cd player, a couple cords, and what looks to be a projector.

"No way."

"Oh yes way." He's beaming as he sets up the projector on Marinette's bed to face the opposite wall. "I'm a genius I know, no need to stare." He gets a slap on the arm as he chuckles at himself.

"This is so cool Chat! Where did you even get one?"

"I had it lying around." He winks, which earns him a blush. Score. "Which movie did you choose?"

"Tangled, obviously."

"Oh I know right! No one has anything on Flynn Rider."

"Or Rapunzel! She defends herself with a fry pan." She gets up on her knees, imitating Rapunzel hitting Flynn, using Chat as her pretend Flynn. Chat merely grabs her arms and flips her onto the bed playfully, gaining a small squeal from Marinette before she pulls him down with her. If she's going down, he's going down too. Chat and Marinette accidentally tangle themselves before seeing the projector fall over onto it's side.

"Uh oh, I have to set it up again."

"Serves you right."

They finally get it working, realising it would be best to use Chat's belt to tie the projector to the bed head so they wouldn't keep knocking it. The movie starts but they realise that their heads are in the way.

"Quickly get down." Chat pushes Marinette down as he snuggles down as well in order to see the movie. Both of them grin in excitement as they see the projector working and the opening scene starting. They both lie as low as they can to avoid their heads blocking the view, which results in them both lying on the bed next to each other, quite close.

During the movie, a draft picks up in the room from her slightly open window. Marinette, who's lying on top of the blankets, immediately gets the chills and decides to go underneath the blanket for warmth. Chat sees her struggling to go underneath with his body weight on it, so decides to move the blanket from underneath him, also finding it quite cold.

"Are you ok princess?"

"Yeah, just a bit cold."

He places an arm around her. "You can use me for warmth. I'm a cat. Cat's radiate heat." He tries to justify offering himself as a pillow, but he knows the truth. Evidently it doesn't matter, as she leans into his side. It's too late before he realises he pulls her in close, his head getting a lot closer to hers than he intended. She looks up in surprise before she gives him a warm smile.

Time stops for a moment as they both lie there gazing at each other, both knowing what they want. It isn't long before Chat breaks the trance, leaning down to put his forehead against hers. Her eyes travel to his lips and he waits for them to travel back up to his own before tilting his head and leaning in slowly. His lips are briefly tickled as he feels her breath hitch before being cut off by the kiss.

Marinette's head is spinning with raw emotion as she takes a moment to realise what is happening. When she comes to, her hands find a way to his hair, gently but firmly pulling him closer to her lips. Chat's own hands have gone from circling her to one on her cheek, and one on her lower hip, pulling her body towards him. Chat smiles into the kiss, eagerly holding her and wanting more. He relaxes into it, knowing that what he's doing feels right. Marinette feels right. He questions why he didn't see it before, but he knows he'll never forget it.

After a couple seconds he feels his chest vibrate with deep resonance, purring. If Marinette notices, she doesn't point it out. Either that or her mouth is too busy to.

They break apart after a couple more seconds, both slightly out of breath but smiling to themselves. Chat opens his eyes first, waiting for Marinette to open her own and look back at him, to see the emotion of euphoria reflected in her eyes. She opens her eyes and he's almost too keen to see it, rushing in for a second kiss. The movie evidently forgotten.

An hour or two go by and the two are chest to chest, heartbeat to heartbeat. Marinette's smiling with her head buried into Chat's neck, her lips pressing against the skin. Chat's trying to keep himself from going crazy at the touch, but he can feel the even breaths coming out of her nose. She's fallen asleep, and so peacefully too.

As quietly and smoothly as he can, he removes himself from the bed, making sure to tuck Marinette in properly and closes the window to ensure she doesn't get too cold. He leaps back up through the skylight, but not before placing a gentle kiss on Marinette's temple. "Sleep tight Princess."

He leaps back home with extra energy and a spring in his step. He jumps into his own room, releasing the transformation before falling onto his bed with open arms, sighing at the roof. Plagg rolls his eyes as Adrien grabs a pillow hugging it to his chest.

"I love her. Plagg, I love her."

"That's cool kid."

"She kissed me."

"Uh huh."

"And I kissed her."

"Good. It's time you moved on from Ladybug."

Oh yeah, he forgot. Now he needed to tell Ladybug. This wasn't going to be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I loved writing this chapter, but i do have AN IMPORTANT POLL QUESTION that will change how the story is going to head
> 
> Do you guys prefer:  
> a) Marinette finding out first  
> b) Adrien finding out first  
> c) both finding out at the same time
> 
> I have ideas for all three, I do have a preference BUT I'm writing for an audience so I'm asking the audience
> 
> edit: ok thank you for the input, I have made a decision and am writing the last few chapters now :)  
> Also thank you everyone for the kind comments, you all make my day >.<


	7. The Saviour

The weekend has passed by like a blur for Marinette. Ever since Friday night with Chat, she's been glowing. All she remembers of Friday night was kissing him and falling asleep in his arms, and then waking up with an empty bed but a massive grin. She gave Tikki the scare of her life as she aggressively started rolling around her bed clutching onto a pillow. And besides that morning, Chat had barely left her side whilst she was in her room. On the Saturday morning she read a note he left - he learnt from his past mistake of leaving crumpled notes around - saying that he had something on but he would be back in the afternoon, so Marinette busied herself by working in the bakery with her parents. She then went up to her room to complete her homework and Chat was knocking on the skylight, as if he knew she had just gone upstairs to her room. He hung out with her before going back to his own home to eat dinner, and then coming back, after their patrol of course, to sit down with her. They agreed they'd had enough of movies for that week and simply sat playing video games, talking about anything and everything they could without revealing anything too personal about Chat.

Yesterday wasn't much different. Marinette had actually woken up in Chat's arms, having fallen asleep after he was already asleep, the poor cat needed it. She gently woke him up just in case he needed to be somewhere, but he said Sundays were his sleep in days, and he had no trouble sleeping in until much later. Again, that night, they were sitting together, except this time they decided to sit on the balcony. Despite the cold air, it was a pretty nice night, and Marinette half wanted to transform then and there to run the roofs of Paris with Chat. Then a thought popped up in her head.

"Hey, it's the one week anniversary of you coming over!"

Chat looks blank for a second before realising it. "Oh yeah! It feels like longer than a week!"

"Maybe we should break a pot plant to celebrate!"

She earned an unamused hiss.

Today however, was back to normal life. She had woken up, getting ready to go back to classes, feeling almost like a completely different person. As she's walking up the school stairs, she's reminiscing over the weekend and has love in her eyes, nearly completely missing the blonde in front of her.

"Marinette!" Adrien calls out to her. He looks puffed, like he ran half a block to get there. He beams a smile at her, something that would have made her a stuttering mess a week ago but right now simply made her feel warm.

"Hey Adrien, what's up?" She gives a kind smile.

Adrien hears her speaking clearly to him and he's amazed. He knows she's spoken to him normally as Chat, but it feels different when he's Adrien. A good different. "Just wanted to know how your weekend was." He shuffles in close and whispers, "How was it with Chat?"

Marinette squirms before rushing over to a seat, pulling Adrien by the hand. He feels the ends of his lips involuntarily pull up at the action as he runs with Marinette to a bench, laughing.

"I take it that it was good?"

"Good?! It was GREAT!" She exclaims with her arms outstretched before seeing others staring at her, to which she pulls her arms back. "He came over and we watched movies, and he bought a projector, and he kissed me and-"

"Kissed! Wow, way to go Marinette!" He's genuinely happy for her, even though he knows he's talking about himself.

"Yeah! I don't know what came over me but our foreheads were touching and his lips were so close and I could feel it coming so I just closed my eyes and we kissed."

"Was he any good?"

Marinette's face immediately goes red. "Wha- Um I- uhhhhhh yes he was- I MEAN- oh who am I kidding." She puts her face in her hands and silently grumbles. "He's a great kisser."

Cue ego boost.

"Honestly I could have kissed him the whole night if I wasn't so tired. He smelt so good, although he smelled a bit like cheese, but I know that's only because of his kwami." Adrien laughs at the sentiment.

Adrien immediately sees Marinette stiffen as if remembering something important. She looks him in the eye, curiously, almost scrutinising his face. Adrien tilts his head in question before she shakes her head and brushes whatever thought she had off.

"Sorry, where was I."

"You were talking about how the kiss was so good you forgot all about the movie." He leans in close to her, wiggling his eyebrows. Marinette laughs, but inside notes Adrien's current tone. He reminds her a lot of Chat, which confuses her. It wasn't too long before that she was stuttering and he was quite restrained in his personality towards her. Somehow, she feels as if their whole dynamic has shifted, and she's not too sure what she thinks of it.

"Hey, it's really easy to lose track of a movie anytime."

"Yeah but losing track of tangled is not. It was the cat, wasn't it?"

Marinette gives a defiant pause. "Fine, yes we forgot about the movie." Adrien laughs at her complete resistance to admit it, thinking it's adorable. He looks at her fondly, a small smile playing on his lips.

They change the topic of conversation soon after, carrying an easy conversation as they start to leave the bench to walk together to class. It's a small gesture, but Marinette notices Adrien blush slightly as he holds the door to the classroom for her. She simply gives him a grin as she takes the kind gesture with grace and walks swiftly into the room. They both take their places in their seats, but not too long before an akuma alert is heard on people's phones around them, their own included.

Both of them look alarmingly at each other before jumping out of their seats.

"I have to go to the bathroom!" Marinette exclaims as she starts to rush out before Adrien chases after her.

"Marinette, are you insane!" He quickly takes a hold of her hand, firmly gripping her but making sure not to hurt her too badly. "That was an akuma alert, you need to get to safety! Not go to the bathroom."

"Trust me, I'll be safe in the bathroom!"

"No you won't! Are you kidding?"

"No! What akuma goes into a bathroom?"

"I- uhhh... You make a valid point but still-"

"Adrien!" She forces him to look at her. "Let me go, and I promise you I'll be fine. You, however, need to find somewhere to hide."

Hearing more and more chaos occurring outside, Adrien makes the hasty decision that he needs to get going soon. The quicker he finishes the akuma, the quicker he can ensure Marinette's safety. "Fine, but I'm not leaving until you show me where you plan to hide that is NOT the bathroom."

Marinette internally rolls her eyes. He's really sweet and she appreciates it, but she really needs to be going, people's lives could be at risk. She rushes over to the sports locker. "Here, I'll be in here ok! I promise, now please go hide." She feels bad, but she pushes him out as she closes the sports locker door, running to the window at the edge of the room and calling for her transformation as she leaps out, as fast as she can.

Meanwhile, as soon as Adrien sees Marinette off, he runs outside to an alley, transforms and jumps into action. He manages to locate the akuma in split timing, seeing a red figure also bouncing on the rooftops. He quickly catches up to her.

"Morning Ladybug!"

"Morning Kitty, you managed to hear anything about this one?"

"Un-fur-tunately not, I was caught up in my civilian life."

"Alright, let's take a closer look then."

They both hop over to the action, ensuring the safety of civilians around them whilst maintaining a bit of distance, keeping just outside of the white transparent sphere the akuma seems to have cast. Chat observes the situation before seeing the civilians reactions when surrounding the akuma. He takes a moment before the realisation hits him.

"It looks harmless, just another stormy weather variation. Let's go-"

"NO!"

Chat reaches out but too late, Ladybug jumps into the sphere and immediately mobilises. Chat doesn't hold himself back before jumping in, feeling the extreme chill hit him. As he radiates heat, he's not as affected, feeling like he just stood in outside in the snow with minimal clothing, however he knew the immense effect the cold would have on Ladybug, and seeing her lying on the ground shivering was enough for him to fret.

He picks her up, trying to take her out of the sphere but it rebounds back on him, making it impossible to get out. Ladybug curls up even more, eyes clamped shut with pain at the cold. He needed to do something.

Picking her up, he jumps off the flat roof, leaning her against a small radiator that's used for the building's ventilation. It's not very warm, but it's at least warmer than Ladybug at the moment. "I don't know if you can hear me Ladybug but stay put. I'll get us out of this."

"Ok." He hears a whimper come out of her mouth. At least it means she can still hear and understand him.

He hears the akuma screaming to no one about being cold at night. Chat figures there's no better way to find the akuma than to get up close and personal with it. He works his way over to the akuma, not yet provoking it in hopes that he can sneak around and spot the akumatised object. Unfortunately, he's not exactly wearing the best attire to be sneaking around in a completely white environment.

"Chat Noir, what a pleasure to see you! I am Icy Night. I can't get a single night without having the blanket stolen from my half of the bed and then I'm ridiculed for having a problem with it, so why don't you all spend a bit of time in my icy, cold shoes." She shoots an ice beam at Chat, who jumps out of the way, behind a wall for cover. She follows, coming around to strike him again but sees him jump up to the roofs again, traversing the rooftop with a smug grin.

"That's your name? You should've been snow white! A bit of snow, a bit of white and a bucket load of sleeping." He emphasises his taunt with a yawn, which enrages the akuma.

"How dare you insult me! I am more powerful than you! Where's Ladybug, so I can show you both how to freeze out the competition."

"She's off holidaying in Hawaii, but she sends her regards!" He doesn't waste any more time, noticing the akuma's costume with a skirt that looks like an uneven cut, or just a plain square of fabric. He's betting it's her blanket.

Without hesitating, Chat Noir advances towards the akuma, dodging its shots of pure ice at him with heightened agility. He manages to reflect one of them right back at icy, but it has no affect. He realises that it's a stupid plan and manages to backtrack at just the right time, instead leaping away to reconsider.

He at least knows where the akuma could be, which is better than before. He retreats, going straight to where he knows Ladybug is to check on her. He sees her shivering again and blows on his hands to warm them up before putting them on her cheeks gently.

"Bug, how are you feeling."

"Pretty hot right now." She manages a laugh. Good, she still has a sense of humour.

"I'll keep it brief. The akuma is in the blanket tied around Icy Night's waist. She shoots out beams of ice, so it's hard to get near her. Can you summon a lucky charm?"

"I don't think so kitty, I'm sorry."

"That's ok, I'll just need to make my own." He gives her a grin, warming his hands up again as he looks around for something, until an idea pops up in his head. "Bug, I have an idea, but you're going to need to strengthen up to call your Miraculous cure afterwards."

"No problem Chat. I'll be here waiting for you. Go do your thing." She's mumbling at this point, increasing Chat's worry and need to hurry. He readies his baton to leap off towards the park below when he hears her last words.

"I love you, Chat."

His arms automatically move him before his mind can catch up with what was said. He jumps down, landing on the turned white grass of the park, immediately sprinting across to the park's water tap. Grabbing a hose, he positions himself facing towards the direction of the akuma. It isn't before he's positioned and waiting that he gets the proper chance to process what's been said.

He replays the words over to himself. Saying he was confused was an understatement. For the whole of his time as Chat Noir, he has loved Ladybug, and when he confessed to her, she had turned him down. Now, she openly said I love you, and it's not like he could question her direction of the phrase. She had specifically said his name. What had changed from a week ago in their dynamic? Nothing that he could think of, and nothing had changed much in his own demeanour. Other than him not saying M'Lady very much due to him dating Marinette-

A thought occurs to him as the akuma pops into sight again, staring angrily in Chat's direction. He waits for the akuma to come closer, waits for the akuma to start sprinting, waits for the akuma to shoot an ice beam at him.

He turns the hose on.

Suddenly the water freezes and makes its frozen ascent up to Icy Night's hands, essentially locking them into place. With Icy Night struggling in her own frozen cage, Chat walks up to her and rips the blanket, letting out the tiny akuma. He quickly grabs it in his hands, jumping up to the building holding a still cold Ladybug. He hopes to make this quick, he doesn't want the akumatised person to freeze without their powers.

"Ok Ladybug, I need you to-" She cuts him off, grabbing for her yoyo and immediately cleansing it, then setting off her Miraculous cure. The warmth comes back to her body as he sees the surroundings gaining more colour and civilians on the street stop shivering. "Well, that was quick."

"I wanted to stop being cold." Ladybug firmly states, before looking over to Chat, endearingly. "Thanks kitty, you really had my back there. It was so stupid of me to just jump in and think it would be ok."

"Hey, you didn't know it would have that large of an effect on you, and you wanted to save people, as you always do. Just for today, let me save you." He nearly kisses her forehead before realising this was not Marinette. It's just, with all that had happened with Ladybug saying I love you to him, and his newfound relationship with Marinette, he couldn't help but wonder if both pigtailed girls were one in the same. He did say that Marinette was his everyday Ladybug, and she did seem more forthcoming with him as Adrien now that she had gotten over her crush.

No, he couldn't think that. It was unfair to Marinette for wanting her to be someone else, and unfair to Ladybug for wanting to know her identity. He stopped the train of thought before he let it dig further.

"Pound it?" They both pound their fists together, neither having to make a quick getaway this time. Chat says bye to Ladybug, but as he's about to leave Ladybug puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Chat, can we have a word tonight?"

"Yeah of course, anything wrong Ladybug?"

"No, I just- just be there ok? 8pm." She leaves just like that, confusing Chat further before he remembers Marinette. He rushes back to ensure she's safe.

Jumping back to school in record time, he sees the school sports shed open and one of the school's assistant coaches coming out of it, meaning school was back on and that Marinette probably had to head back to class. He's about to jump down from the roof into the next-door alleyway to detransform before seeing a red flash from inside the sports locker room. He knows what that means, but he's too intrigued to know why Ladybug chose there of all places to detransform.

His thoughts catch up to him before his eyes do, because he already knows the reason Ladybug decided to detransform there. A second goes by, and he sees Marinette looking outside the sports locker, looking around for potential witnesses probably. He feels his knees go weak; his arms start to turn to jelly as he processes what he thinks just happened.

For the second time that day, his body moves before his head catches up to him, as he leaps into the boy’s bathroom, locks himself in a cubicle and detransforms, placing his head in his hands. The small kwami shoots out, about to joke around before seeing Adrien's posture, and thinks better of it.

"I messed up Plagg."

Plagg scoffs. "You mess up a lot kid, which part are you talking about?"

Adrien doesn't want to say it out loud, but his thoughts surely don't let him forget it.

_Marinette is Ladybug._

At least he thinks she is. He's 99% certain, but he never saw. For all he knew, Ladybug could've detransformed in there as Marinette was just leaving. But deep down he knows, he knows better than that. He knows if there was anyone in the world who would make him fall out of love with Ladybug, it was Ladybug's alter ego. Why didn't he see it earlier? It's so obvious now!

"Oh my god, I shoved Ladybug into a sports locker to make sure she was safe. And she ended up being in danger anyways."

"I thought you shoved pigtails into the- Oh. Oh kid, yeah you have messed up, but not with the rules." He takes a bite of cheese that he found in Adrien's bag. "You need to tell her."

"I know. I know that but I can't just walk up to her and say it, she'll freak out on me. I don't want her to think I've known the whole time either, because that would look really bad and probably make her feel worse." Adrien groans as he weighs out his options.

Plagg finishes the whole slice of cheese. "Listen kid. Give yourself a day or a bit to think it over, but for now I think you need to head to class. Your teacher might call your father." Adrien perks up after that, grabbing his shoulder bag whilst simultaneously pushing Plagg into it. He'll apologise later, but right now he's running back up to class to see Marinette. No, to learn, not see Marinette.

He stands outside the door, trying not to psych himself out. He walks in briskly, earning a nod from Mlle Bustier acknowledging his presence. He turns to sit in his desk when he sees her. If he had been making lovey-dovey eyes at her this morning, he was well into getting on one knee for her by now. He sits down to stop the blush from forming on his cheeks, but can't help it, so he just pulls his collar up, directs his gaze directly downwards and starts to focus on the class, but he can't.

He's never had so little concentration in one class before. Every time he heard a noise from her, or a shift in posture, or a whisper to Alya, it was like he was hyperaware of it. He kept thinking over instances where he should've known. Ladybug knew about Plagg and his love for cheese, and that same night Marinette bought up plates of cheese and had him detransform. Marinette obviously hadn't been freaked out by it, as he didn't hear a scream. It would also explain why Marinette wasn't in her room after he finished patrol with Ladybug, god he must have made that a bit of a hard situation for her!

He then sits up straight as he realises something. Marinette had loved Adrien since they met. Chat had loved Ladybug since they met. Ladybug had loved another guy since they met. Ladybug is Marinette, which means-

_She loved me all along._

At this point, he slumps down with a melted grin, wanting to talk to the girl behind him more than anything. He had tuned his thoughts and senses to noticing her, which meant he was a little bit more than distracted. Father would not be happy to know this.

Finally, lunch comes, and he can't wait to get out of that classroom. He packs up his books, intending to stride right out of the classroom before he feels someone's arm link through his. Not now Chloe!

"Hey Adrien, are you free again at lunch?"

He looks down at the person linking arms with him who’s is in fact not Chloe, but Marinette. He feels the hair on his arms stand up at the contact, and wants to run away, but looking at her and denying her has become exponentially harder. Especially when he sees her smiling at him, giving him her full attention.

He can't say no to that.

"Yes, I'm free. I'd love to have lunch with you!"

"Oh great! Alya and Nino are already outside." She drags him along as he remembers they have other friends, trying not to be disappointed it's not just him and Marinette.

They find the other couple, who are sitting down on the same side of the bench, making Adrien and Marinette sit next to each other. Marinette let's go of Adrien's arm as she sits across from Alya. Adrien drops down next to her. The four of them find a few different topics to talk about, bouncing off of each other, from one to the next. Eventually the topic winds up on Andre the Ice cream man.

"I love Andre! He's so nice." Alya exclaims, clinging onto Nino.

"Yeah, he's a pretty chill dude."

Adrien and Marinette start laughing at which Nino and Alya are really confused by. Adrien and Marinette both see their confused faces, and then look to each other. Adrien explains.

"You made a pun. You know, saying Andre was chill. Cause he's the ice cream man."

"Ohhhhh." Both of them realise at the same time, leaving Marinette laughing again.

"Looks like they both just real-iced."

Adrien looks at her, one eyebrow raised. Did his Lady just pun? He was so getting in on this.

"And they did it at the same time too, isn't that the sweetest? Although I really thought Alya would get it sooner, after all she always does have the inside scoop."

Alya is about to respond before Marinette realises the pun challenge and flings one right back. "Don't worry, it just means they're mint to be."

"Quite heart melting if you ask me."

"What kind of pun was that? You seem to be running out of puns. It's like your brain is frozen."

"I de-served that. My puns have been a bit rocky lately." He leans in close to her, cocking his head to the side and inviting her to respond back.

"Berry rocky. With all your confidence, I thought your puns would be legen-dairy." She adds another pun to the list, equally matching him by leaning in and smirking with pride.

"They're usually the cherry on top. I guess all good things must cone to an end."

"Icy what you did there." At this point, Marinette and Adrien are awfully close, with both staring each other off. Adrien makes the mistake of looking at Marinette's lips, which he's sure she noticed, but if she did, she doesn't show it.

It's quiet for a moment before Nino interrupts. "Ok I don't know what's happening, but God please stop it."

Marinette and Adrien, who have been cracking up after each pun are now both holding their stomachs whilst Alya and Nino just look at each other. Alya shakes her head, wondering how the girl ever became this comfortable with Adrien so quickly, but is not complaining. They seem to have found a good connection.

"Adrien," Marinette says in between laughs, "I never knew how much you like puns!"

"Are you kidding! What else are you supposed to do with language? I've mastered the art of punning." He's being a lot more open and friendly than Marinette's ever seen before, which she's glad about, but a thought nags on her. Something about him seems so familiar when he's like this, something so comfortable and easy about their relationship. She almost compares it to her relationship with Chat.

They go back to class when lunch is over, Marinette still stewing over the reminiscent and familiar deja vu feeling she was happening. Something doesn't seem right, and she feels annoyed not knowing what it is.

Class goes on, with Mlle Mendeleiev writing on the board about the experiment they were to do that afternoon. Halfway through completing the Marinette's experiment with Rose as her partner, she gasps and drops the metal rod in her hand. She immediately apologises, picking the rod up with a paper towel and washing it clean with distilled water before using it again, but her mind is elsewhere.

She looks past Rose to the table next to hers, focusing on a particular blonde. Similar build, similar height, both have green eyes (that she knows as a fact now because of her recent kwami swap with Chat), both are well versed in fencing, similar strict lifestyles and fathers, both are athletic, caring and humble...

Both love puns.

That's what she was missing. It's too late to go back, she tries to stop the thoughts, but everything clicks together after this. Him going out for a run to get away from his father, Adrien's faint smell of cheese, his appearances and disappearances, his changed personality that seems so familiar. She's 99% certain, but she can't know for sure.

As she's thinking about this, another certain conversation pops into her head, and her face pales.

She told Adrien to his face that she likes his abs.

She mentally facepalms herself in embarrassment. No wonder he looked a bit red in the face after that, she had basically said 'I like your abs they're hot' to him without her even knowing it. She's surprised he never gloated about it, but once he knew she was Ladybug he'd have a blast.

All too fast her embarrassment leaves as she remembers that dilemma. She still has to tell him.

Class drags on for far too long, but as soon as it ends, she's running out the door for home. She needs to have a good chat with Tikki. She briefly sees Adrien try to say goodbye to her, but she's sure he'll come over to hers that night so she doesn't feel too bad leaving him hanging.

Rushing past her parents with a brief kiss on the cheek each, she tosses open her door and opens her bag.

"Tikki! You have to help me, I think I figured something out."

"How to do physics?"

"No, something not as helpful." She takes a deep breath in and looks at the kwami. "I think I know who Chat Noir is."

Tikki floats in the air in silence for a few seconds, before slinking off to her resting place. "Nope, I'm not dealing with this-"

"Tikki! I'm freaking out!"

"How did you find out Marinette? I thought you were against revealing identities."

At this point, she's using her hands to frantically gesture and emphasise her points. "I am! Or was, but we didn't reveal. It just sort of clicked and then I knew I was right. I didn't mean to, and he didn't mean to, but it fell into place."

"Well that sounds like it was the right time to be revealed then. The universe has many creative ways of sending messages. So, what seems to be the problem."

"I don't know how to tell him. I can't just saunter up to him and be like, 'Hi, I'm dating you, I know you're Adrien and now you know I'm Marinette'."

"Well then, how would you like to be told if the situation was reversed?"

Marinette's eyes bug out. "I don't know! I kind of wanted us both to know at the same time." She gives a small pout at that, shoulders slumping. Tikki feels bad for the girl.

"Don't feel bad Marinette! Maybe you can use tonight's patrol to understand him a bit more! That way, you might be able to find a way to deal with this situation?"

Marinette relaxed a little as she heard the kwami's suggestion. "That's actually a really good idea! Thanks Tikki, you've saved me again." Marinette fetches a couple more sweets to give to the sweet-toothed kwami as a thank you before she starts to sketch. She was in the process of designing a new piece, as she had finished the dress for Alya. She hadn't yet had the opportunity to give it to her, but she will soon. She restlessly finds herself looking at the clock every few seconds, waiting for it to tick around to 8pm. She struggles to work on her new design so she decides to give some homework a try.

Two hours later, her parents call her down for dinner, and she's gotten nowhere on the homework. She's freaking out too much! She keeps thinking about all the instances with Adrien that she never picked up on, like the similar allergies, the rushing off during akuma attacks. Even finer points like his interest in her crush on Chat Noir, asking if he's a good kisser. God, he even knew that they were watching tangled last night, and she didn't question it!

Everything is piling up in Marinette's head, to the point that she finds herself leaving for patrol an hour early. She decides she can probably run around for an hour while waiting for Chat.

She swings around to their meeting place to see, to her surprise, Chat already there, pacing back and forth whilst tossing his baton up and down, as if practicing something. She takes a deep breath, swinging over to him.

"Good evening Chaton."

"Good evening, M'Lady."

The tension is rough, and they both feel it from their own ends. Ladybug looks over to see Chat thinking, distracted by something.

"Chat?" He looks over, looking as vulnerable as he did the first night he stood on her balcony. "Are you ok?"

Still staring at her, he takes a deep breath. "Yeah, I just... I think I messed up bug."

"How did you mess up?"

He's about to reply before she sees him restrain herself. Ladybug tilts her head in confusion before Chat talks again. "I'm dating someone."

Slightly hurt, she takes a moment to calm herself before she responds back angrily. Instead, she makes sure to sound invested but not too caring. "And how is that a mess up."

"Because, I want to date her in my civilian life." He looks over to her with doe eyes, and Ladybug's heart stops. It suddenly feels like Marinette's on the roof in her place, the girl whose heart gets swept away by emotion far too easily. Chat continues. "She's amazing, bug. She's everything you could want in a girl. She's funny, kind, sweet, loving, she has the best smile, she makes me feel loved, and I care for her so much more than I ever thought I would. She just snuck up on me, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about her for the past week."

At this point, Ladybug is slightly flustered, both at his words but also the predicament this makes. She already knows his identity, but he doesn't know hers. She doesn't even know what he would think, let alone how to tell him. Before she can really think about it, she stammers out some advice.

"W-Well you can- um- maybe you can become closer to her in your civilian life, and then once you're sure that she's the one or the right one for you, then reveal?"

His eyes snap up to hers. "You give me permission to tell my identity to her?"

"Yeah, I'm sure Marinette is trustworthy. She's clumsy, but she can keep a secret."

"How did you know it was Marinette I was dating..."

Cue panic. Quick recovery smile. Think of response.

"You mentioned it before!" Nailed it.

Chat gives her a wary look before smiling to himself about something. "Ok bug, I guess I did." Something about that response makes her feel very wary, but she doesn't dwell on it. They talk for a few more minutes before deciding to do patrol earlier in order to 'go home and sleep' earlier, even though they both know that won't be happening.

After patrol, Ladybug gives a brief goodbye to Chat, saying she has some homework to catch up on, which is not entirely false. She gives him a wave before flinging herself off the building, trying to get to her house at record speed to avoid Chat seeing her. The patrol was helpful, as she got over her panic of Adrien being Chat and started to connect the two together. However, she still needed a way to tell him.

Chat stays behind on the building, smirking as Ladybug leaves for Marinette's house knowing full well, he'll see her in a couple minutes. Maybe knowing her identity isn't as bad as he thought, but he needs to figure out a way to tell her. Or at least let her know he knows. An idea pops up into his head, as he thinks of ways to mischievously tease her. Maybe he can tease her a bit and see how much it will take before she knows he knows. He starts to chuckle to himself as he leaves, already having given her a few minutes head start.

He eagerly knocks at the door, awaiting Marinette's response. She opens the door allowing him to jump down on her bed, her cheeks stained red from the cold run back. Not that he was supposed to know.

"Hello Princess. You're quite red tonight, are you alright?" He bats his eyes innocently, seeing her squirm as she tries to make up an excuse.

"Yes I'm fine! I was just doing some... At home yoga! It's very good for the core!" She immediately starts to show him a yoga pose, reaching down to her feet and lunging out to the side, although he's quite sure she has no idea what she's doing. He smiles at her antics.

"Ah, I see. Well Princess, what did you have in mind for tonight? A musical? Movie? Video Games? Maybe a sing-a-long?"

She laughs at his suggestions. "Actually kitty, I was wondering if we could just talk tonight. I know you have to keep your identity safe, but as long as it's not too revealing, I wanted to know more about you." He melts looking at her eyes, and quickly agrees pulling her up onto his lap.

"Ok, well Mari, what do you want to know?" Marinette immediately blushes at the nickname, causing Chat's heart to soar again. She's adorable.

"Well," She takes a while to think, as Marinette herself knows a lot about Chat being Ladybug. This time, she wants to get to know Adrien, without letting him know of course. "You said that you had a part time job for your father. Do you honestly like this job, or do you do it to please him?"

Chat's cheery persona falters as he thinks it over. "I used to like it, once upon a time, but it's become exhausting lately. I think I used to like it because my dad would praise me when I had done well, but now I have to act a lot more professionally because I have a lot more experience. So if I'm not at my best, I don't make him proud. It's a lot harder to like my job these days."

Marinette nods, taking it in. "Ok, then if you could do another job, without your father's input, what would it be?"

Chat laughs. "As weird as it is, I kind of want to work in a movie theatre."

"Really!? Why?"

"They have cool uniforms! The pinstriped ones, and they get to serve buttered popcorn all day, which is delicious. Imagine how amazing that would smell! Plus, it would probably cover over the cheese smell I get because of Plagg."

"Oh yeah, I have some more cheese for him downstairs if you'd like to detransform."

"You're not gonna stare at my abs this time"

She slaps him. He laughs.

"I'm going to go downstairs and forget you said that. You, detransform and put this on." She shoves the mask at him before jumping out of his lap, going downstairs to grab the pre-made cheese platter.

She comes back up to see Chat, luckily fully clothed, sitting at her desk looking at her designs from earlier. That makes sense now too, how he knew about the hand stitching from earlier. And the physics! She can't help but smile as she sees him peruse her work, knowing that whilst he may not like being a model, he still has an eye for design.

"Do you like it?"

Chat pushes the chair back and swings around, unaware she had made her way back up. "Yeah, your designs are always great Marinette!" She grins at the compliment.

"Thanks Chaton." He lights up at the name unbeknownst to Marinette. It's different hearing her say it not in uniform, but he likes it. It feels more personal.

Marinette looks down at the platter to see Plagg already feasting into it. She suppresses a laugh seeing the kwami so passionate and invested in his beloved cheese. She had never taken Chat seriously about his kwami's cheese addiction until she had witnessed it for herself, but she made sure this time to stock up on-

"CAMEMBERT! I love you, I love you so much I missed you. Why do we have to part so often." Marinette looks over to Adrien and sees him lean over the desk, head leaning into his hand in resignation at the kwami's exclamations. Her suppressed laugh emerges, as she puts the platter down on the chaise and goes over to Chat, hugging him around the shoulders.

"He's just excited."

"You don't get it, he's ALWAYS excited. He needs rehab for cheese."

Marinette giggles at her kitty's complete and overwhelming defeat when it comes to his kwami's dietary choices. She grabs his hand, leading him up to the bed, before turning around to Plagg.

"Oh yeah Plagg? There's cookies in the drawer." Giving Plagg a knowing look, she sees him grin cheekily, taking some cheese from the platter before dashing around her desk.

"Why do you have cookies in your draw, Princess? That's weird."

"Don't worry, Plagg knows what I'm talking about."

They both climb onto the bed again. Chat sits Marinette opposite him, both of them facing each other. Marinette takes a breath as she takes in Chat, or Adrien more like it, sitting in front of her. He's wearing a Ladybug shirt and black shorts, obviously pyjamas. His hair is scruffy, resembling more Chat than Adrien, but she can still see Adrien through and through. It's weird how much one day can change your perspective on someone, but she wouldn't regret this. Right now, she feels the closest to Adrien's genuine self, seeing him just being himself, not faking anything for the cameras or putting on a brave face for Paris. There's a boy sitting in Ladybug pyjamas wearing a fake mask on her bed, and she can't help but see the authenticity of the situation in front of her.

And she loves it.

"Ok, back to conversation time. Marinette, what's your biggest fear?"

Adrien watches her mull over the question before looking down at her hands. "I fear letting others down, especially if that leads to bigger consequences."

Adrien knows exactly what she is talking about. He grips her hands, reassuring her. "Marinette, never fear of letting others down. You of all people would be the least likely to let someone down, trust me. You're clever, you work well with others and you always have confidence in yourself. With a combination like that, you could never go wrong. I certainly haven't." He brings one of her hands up, placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles. Marinette looks at him wistfully.

"Thanks, kitty." She leans forward to hug him before getting pulled over by Adrien, making her land straight on his chest. He grins cheekily at her, making her shake her head. He wraps his arms around her waist as her arms slide beneath his neck. Her head falls to the space next to his own as she hugs him tightly, feeling safe and calm in his embrace.

Adrien similarly feels like he's the calmest he has been the whole day, like her proximity and presence has a calming sensation for him. It's relaxing and human and wonderful. He feels the rise and falls of her chest on his own, feels the beat of her heart on top of him, hears the whistle of her breaths in his ear. He couldn't wish for anything more.

"So, this is how you decide to feel me up, huh?"

He earned the slap. He enjoyed the kiss afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG i finished it, this chapter was double what I usually write and actually double what I have ever written in a chapter and I STILL LOVED WRITING IT
> 
> aaaaaaaaa I'm so happy, ok now I'm done
> 
> I'm still questioning whether I should keep the story at 10 chapters or lengthen it out to 11, bc I have an idea for another chapter inbetween that I think would be cute but not sure if it's overkill and I should just keep the story rolling... :/


	8. The Tease

Marinette wakes up chirpy. Despite staying up quite late last night, she jumps out of bed, stunning Tikki as she gets dressed and packs her bag in no time. She beckons Tikki to fly into her bag as she opens the trapdoor of her room. Quickly grabbing breakfast, Marinette says a short goodbye to her parents and dashes out the door with a skip. 

Knowing that Adrien was the one behind the mask, the one who had been coming to her balcony every night, her partner, made Marinette's heart beat rapidly. She wanted to see him more than ever, which is the reason she woke up and walked to school so early. She knew he was, more often than not, at school early and she couldn't wait to at least see him, let alone to mess with him.

She had come up with the conclusion during his stay last night that whilst she should most definitely let him know that she knew his identity, which was the responsible route, she could also have a bit of fun with it. She was reminded of how many times Adrien had listened to her talk about Chat, without her knowing. Maybe he thought he could get away with it for a while, but not anymore. Her kitty deserved a bit of teasing.

She walks with a nimble spring in her step, eager to cause some mischief. Feeling more confident than most days, she sees the very person plaguing her mind step out of their car. Even though she has full intentions of messing with him, she still stands back to give him a once over. Who knew Chat was so appeasing to the eyes underneath the mask.

Who was she kidding, she definitely knew. She had eyes.

"Adrien!" She gives him a big wave, to which she sees him shut the door and wave to her before realising he forgot his bag inside. She chuckles at his awkwardness as she visibly sees him look around for his bag before remembering, finding it incredibly endearing.

Adrien realises he left his bag in the car in his haste to say hi to Marinette. He opens the door again, hearing Plagg snickering inside his bag. "Shut up Plagg,"he hushes to him as he closes the door. He walks up to Marinette, anticipating her to talk about last night with him. It was a guilty pleasure of his to listen to her talk about her nights with Chat, even though he knew it was wrong. But then again, she would never do this again as Ladybug, he knew that for certain. He could delay letting her know for a couple days, right?

"Hey Marinette! How are you?"

"I'm quite good. Looking forward to today!"

"Oh? And why is that?" He had to hold himself back from saying Princess at the end of that.

Marinette gives him a sly smile and simply says, "Oh, no reason!"

"Hey girl!" Alya sidles up next to Marinette as they enter the courtyard. "Hey Adrien."

"Hey Alya."

"Oh yeah Marinette! Did you see the Ladyblog?" 

Marinette makes an exaggerated head turn to Alya, making sure Adrien hears this conversation. She knew Alya would mention her newest article she posted last night, where she was analysing the relationship between Ladybug and Chat Noir's dynamic and why it worked so well as two opposing powers. She was going to have some fun with this.

"Yes I did see it! I read it fully through too!"

"What did you think? Did you agree with anything?"

Marinette pauses for effect, both Adrien and Alya's heads turning towards her to know what she thought. She restrains herself from smirking. "I agreed with most of it, but I didn't know Chat Noir had gotten hit by the akuma that many times. I thought he never got hit by them?" She tilts her head innocently.

Adrien straightens up before interjecting. "He gets hit because he's saving his- um, he's saving Ladybug!"

"If he's saving her, why does he need to get hit?"

"He takes the hits for her!"

"I mean, I know he's clumsy and all, he did break my plant pots, but don't superheroes have super reflexes?"

"Chat does have super fast reflexes!"

"Why are you so worked up about it, Adrien?"

Adrien pauses mid-thought, before putting a hand behind his neck and sheepishly grinning. "I just think that... Chat is misunderstood sometimes." Adrien then remembers that Marinette is Ladybug, which means that she of all people in Paris would know exactly how many times he had been akumatised. She would definitely be understanding of him and know exactly why he did it. It was at that moment that he saw her slightly smirk.

Oh, she got him. Obviously she would know that Chat took the hits for her, he guesses she was just trying to make sure Alya didn't suggest she was Ladybug, but he was pretty sure she'd never think of it anyways. He decides to toy with this.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure that if Ladybug wasn't in the way of the akuma's ray, then he wouldn't be hit in the first place. He's just an expendable last defence."

Marinette's head turns sharp, her eyes boring into Adrien's.

Uh oh. He may have forgotten this is Ladybug he's messing with. If she knew he was Chat, she wouldn't waste a minute dragging him out of there and tying him up to the Eiffel Tower, although her eyes say exactly that right now.

"Chat Noir isn't a last expense, Adrien. He's valuable, and whilst ladybug may make mistakes, it's not because of her that Chat Noir makes faulty decisions."

"He doesn't make faulty decisions! He cares for her and wants to make sure she's safe!"

"He can do that by-"

"GUYS CUT IT OUT!" Alya pushes them away as they had been walking closer to each other. "God, you'd think this was an actual fight between Ladybug and Chat Noir. You know they've had multiple fights like this right?"

Both Adrien and Marinette straighten themselves out, flushed slightly and looking to the side. Adrien looks Marinette's way, seeing her lip jut out in a pout. Alya continues to talk as she leads them up the stairs before, thankfully, Nino comes along and Alya immediately latches onto a conversation with him. The air between Adrien and Marinette is tense before Adrien pulls Marinette aside.

"Hey, I'm sorry Marinette." She turns her head to him slightly, blue eyes looking into his own. "I didn't mean to get so fired up about Chat and Ladybug."

"I'm sorry too, Adrien. I guess, I get really defensive when people call Chat expendable. He's so much more than that." She walks closer to him, putting her hands around him and hugging him, which surprises him for a moment before he puts his hands around her too, embracing her.

Marinette briefly remembers that Adrien isn't Chat right now and might think weirdly of her before she feels his arms wrap around her waist. She decides to sink into the hug, knowing her kitty would take her words to heart. They break away from each other before the corridors flood with students, and decide to follow Nino and Alya to their classroom.

Class is slow, but Marinette busies herself by drawing Adrien. Or Chat. She's torn, as she constantly sketches a mask over him. Alya sees her, in a state of frustration, rip out a piece of paper out of her sketchpad before crumpling it up.

She draws a picture of Chat again, this time putting him in his sheepish 'hand behind the neck' pose she saw the first night on her balcony. She then proceeds to rub out the mask and change his hair. No doubt, it's Adrien. She couldn't be wrong.

She just didn't understand why he thought he was expendable.

Finally, she sees everyone packing up for her lunch. She grabs her own stuff, seeing Alya beckon for her to hurry up.

"We'll be at the usual table!" Alya pipes out to Marinette as she drags Nino, leaving Marinette still at the table and Adrien just below her. He looks up to her, holding a hand out.

"Want to follow them?"

She tries not to blush as she takes his hand to step down from her table. She quickly drops it, not wanting to make the wrong impression on him, as he still doesn't know she knows. She sees him beaming at her like a puppy as they walk to lunch, making her laugh. 

"Why are you so excited?"

"I like spending time with my friends! And you're my friend." Marinette shakes her head in amusement. Adrien blushes before turning the way they're walking with affection in his eyes. "You know, you're such a great person Marinette. I'm so glad that of all people in this school you could be close friends with, you're close friends with me. And I'm actually a bit annoyed that I didn't realise you had a crush on me earlier, otherwise maybe I would have been the one to sweep you off your feet instead of the cat." Although his eyes face away as he's saying this, Marinette looks straight at him in awe. He turns back to look at her, taking her hands in his own. "You never fail to be there for others. You even stood up for Chat when he wasn't there. It's no wonder I called you our everyday Ladybug, I wouldn't be surprised if you were her."

Marinette stammers out a response. "I- uh What! Ha ha I couldn't possibly..." She tries to fend off the statement before locking eyes with Adrien, her hands still in his own, his own eyes reflecting pure adoration. Oh.

He knows.

He knows she's Ladybug, there's no other explanation for the way he's looking at her and what he just said. She suddenly feels a big weight fall off her shoulders. She doesn't know how or when, but he knows, and now she has someone else in the world to talk to about her second life. She can't take back the fact that he knows, but she can let him know she knows too. She only owes it to him.

She's brought back to the present situation when she hears Adrien's remark. "I thought you only stammered around me because you had a crush on me?" He's leaning in right now, letting go of her hands to tuck them behind his back as he cheekily smiles at her. Marinette wonders how smart her kitty is.

"Maybe I still do have a crush on you." She puts a finger to his nose, pushing him away as she purses her lips, walking away towards the table. Adrien, stunned, only hesitates a second before reaching for her shoulder to stop her.

"But, I thought you said you liked Chat Noir. Didn't you kiss him and say he was a good kisser." He genuinely looks confused. She hopes he catches on soon.

She puts a finger to her mouth in contemplation. "A good kisser? No I don't remember saying that, I remember saying he smelt of cheese." She nods her head as if to agree with herself.

"No you said he was a good kisser, and that he smelt good with a SLIGHT scent of cheese because of his kw-" He pauses before he says the word that would give him away, but Marinette just gives him an innocent smile and touches her finger to his nose, effectively booping him.

"Don't worry. I don't think you smell of cheese." She walks off to the table with Nino and Alya, leaving Adrien standing where he was. His face drops and his head hurts as the realisation sinks in. Oh.

She knows.

She knows he's Chat. He doesn't know long she's known for, but he can bet that she knew during this morning's chat. Maybe she was trying to rile him instead of protecting her identity.

And she got him exactly where she wanted.

Why that little-

He starts to breath after forgetting for a few seconds. She still never fails to take his breath away. He never usually sees her being playful towards him, she's always quite responsible. He's actually proud of what she did today, although they probably should have a serious conversation about it when they have patrol next.

Adrien composes himself, turning around to face his friends at the table before walking over to them. He sees Marinette sipping from a juice as her eyes flick up to his. He makes sure to give her a smirk, as if he’s sharing a secret with her now that the cat was in the know. She giggles as he sits down across from her.

Tonight was going to be interesting. Very interesting.

***

Marinette, after having helped out her parents with dinner and enjoying it with them, was finally alone in her bedroom. She was waiting for Chat to come to her balcony, but he seemed to be taking some time to get there.

"What if he doesn't come tonight Tikki. Maybe I scared him off..." She leans her head on her palm, sighing before Tikki shoots up in front of her face.

"Marinette! You know that's not true, he loves you. Both sides of you! He's probably just caught up with something." Marinette gazes up to the skylight in longing before Tikki just shakes her head and sighs. "Do you want to go for a run to check?"

"Yes!" Aggressively shaking her head, Marinette responds immediately to the kwami's suggestion, making Tikki giggle. She knows what it feels like to be so close yet so far from your loved one, so she understands Marinette. Marinette quickly calls for her transformation before shooting up through the roof and swinging off.

She swings over the roofs of Paris with high spirits, feeling the breeze of the night sting her cheeks. If she doesn't find Chat or Adrien, she might just go for a run whilst waiting for him. She jumps over the last few roofs before seeing the big mansion that lies at her destination. Briefly, she swings up on a roof that she's able to peer into Adrien's room, but feels her shoulders slump as she sees he's not there. Where could he possibly be? She knows his schedule off by heart, so he should have eaten way before now, and she knows he doesn't exactly have family time with anyone.

She jumps away, trying to figure out where her kitty might be before hearing a faint noise behind her.

"Gotcha!"

"AH!" Ladybug screams before slamming her hand over her mouth, remembering people are trying to sleep. Chat's snuck up behind her, arm around her waist as he leans his head on her shoulder from behind.

"Evening M'Lady." He lets go, giving one look at her stunned face before laughing his head off. "Bug, you looks like you saw a ghost. Are you afraid of cats?"

"I might be now..."

"That would be sad. How would you ever fight beside me? I thought we were supposed to be paw-tners." He addeds a few extra blinks, feigning innocence. Ladybug's eyes scrutinise him before seeing his arm hiding behind his back. What in the-

"Chat?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you hiding behind your back?"

Chat just smiles and tilts his head, his ears following suit. "Nothing that you should know about."

"Chat..."

"It's nothing!"

She doesn't believe him, seeing him so defensive is only a thing that happens when he's lying. She walks closer to him. She sees him take a step back. She takes another step forward, resulting in the same thing. She cocks her head. 

"If you didn't have anything behind your back, then why are you stepping back, kitty?" She continues to take steps towards him as he, luckily, stays rooted in the same spot. He chuckles nervously.

"Ok, I have something, but I'd rather not say."

"Why not?" At this point they are chest to chest, Ladybug staring down Chat despite being marginally shorter. Chat juts his face forward to respond in a childish tone.

"Because, I don't wanna."

Ladybug reaches her hand around Chat before he laughs and looks down at her with an incredulous look. "Ladybug, why so handsy? I told you I have a girlfriend." He gives a smug smile as he sees her hands drop. She steps back and raises her hands in surrender, turning her back on him to walk away.

"Alright alright, I'll let it go. Guess I'll just... Go on my own way." She gives one last look over her shoulder to see Chat still standing in the same spot with a small smile on his face, waiting for her to leave. She sighs, running to the next roof over before jumping off for momentum to swing. She heads directly home, lying on her bed as she detransforms.

"Did you find him Marinette?"

"I found him Tikki. I have no idea what he was doing though, but I'm pretty sure he's coming here. You still may want to hide yourself, he may still not know even though I was blatantly obvious at lunch."

"He is pretty oblivious." Tikki gives a small giggle which Marinette adores.

"First Alya, now you. Although I have to agree." She hears a light tap on her skylight as Tikki flies away. She unlatches the skylight, letting the cat in, who still has his hand behind his back. He gives her a mischievous grin as he sits down, grabbing the fake mask that's still hanging off the bed from when he left in the morning and quickly slipping it over his own before detransforming.

Marinette gives him a confused look before he simply winks. "Can't be too careful with identities can we M'L- princess." She rolls her eyes at him, but he proceeds to wear the mask.

"What's behind your back?"

"What? No 'Hi Chat, it's been forever since I've seen you. I missed you all day-" He's about to go on before Marinette tries to playfully tackle him, knowing he's teasing her. "Woah princess wait!" He luckily stops her before he tramples him and pulls out his hand from behind his back. In it, he holds a basket of tulips, scatter chocolates, and a small cuddly bear. Marinette's hands fling to her mouth as she gets very flustered at the gesture. Chat merely smirks at her reaction. "Here's why I didn't want to show you earlier." He says as he reaches his ungloved hand towards her face, caressing her cheek. "I wanted to see this reaction here before doing this." He leans, in kissing her. She breaks it off quickly before taking the basket down to her desk, climbing back up to bed and once again tackling him, resuming the kiss.

They break apart as they're both smiling and Marinette gives him a massive hug.

"Thank you Chaton."

"Your welcome Mari. Anything to make you smile." She nuzzles her nose to his, giving him an eskimo kiss. She sits up as he sits next to her, leaning against the wall. "So, what do you want to do tonight?" 

Marinette purses her lips as she tries to think of something before having an idea after Chat said something one night.

"I know what we should do."

***

After putting the tulips into a vase with water and gathering all the chocolates together, Marinette goes downstairs to get some last minute treats. She grabs some popcorn, pretzels, and of course cheese and cookies for Plagg and Tikki. The kwamis, although both were invited up to the bed, remain on the chaise to dine together. Marinette shares a look with Adrien as Plagg yells at them for staring too long at his Sugarcube, to which the both (jokingly) profusely apologise. Adrien, still wearing the stupid fake mask, takes the popcorn and laptop up to the bed as Marinette brings the pretzels and chocolates.

"Ok Chat. Remember how you told me that you never watch tv."

"Yes."

"And how you didn't know who the Kardashians were."

"Yes."

"Well, you're about to find out. We're watching keeping up with the Kardashians."

"What's that?"

"Kitty, you're killing me."

After remembering that Chat had said he always wondered why people ranted and hated on people they haven't met, Marinette decided to see if he could withstand the absurdness that was the Kardashians. She was really intrigued to see his reaction to the show, especially since he had no idea who they were. For the smartest student in the class, he sure was sheltered.

They spend the rest of the night feeding each other chocolates, throwing popcorn into each other's mouths and laughing when they miss it. The show provides Adrien with some insight on the Kardashians and who they are, and it's not a few episodes in before he picks a favourite, at which makes Marinette burst into laughter. They give it a rest after a few episodes, both of them pretty tired before Marinette cuddles up to Adrien. They both sink into the mattress and lie there as the laptop's screen darkens. Adrien simply uses his leg to shut the lid before flipping over and smother Marinette in a koala hug, making her feel extremely warm. He pulls her into his arms as an idea pops into her head.

"Hey Chat."

"Mhmm?" He hums quite tiredly. Marinette feels bad for making him come over every night, which leads to her proposal.

"Why don't I come to yours tomorrow?" At that, his ears flick up.

"You'd do that?" 

"Of course kitty. You've been doing it for me for a week and a bit, it seems very hard on you." She shrugs. "I don't want to make you tired every night because you need to leave really late or early." She puts a hand on his cheek as he leans into the gesture. Looking at him, even with a mask on, he seems so at ease. Marinette just wants the best for him, and wants to protect him as much as possible. She feels her heart swell at the sight, faintly smiling as she kisses his forehead. 

"Go to sleep kitty. I'll see you tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, I've had exams and assignments and stuff and I literally only just finished this in the past two nights, although I knew I had to upload today because it's been 5 days.
> 
> I still have two assignments due next week and a further one the week after, but I think because this fic is coming to a close it'll be a bit easier? less development and I think the chapters after this are a bit shorter (but I'll see what i can do, I might be able to add in some scenarios depending on how well I'm thinking at the time coz sometimes my brain gets fried after studying)
> 
> Anyways THANK YOU for reading and for all the nice comments, they really keep me going and I love you guys


	9. The Masked Feline

Adrien wakes up in his own bed with the realisation that he was carried home last night. He puts his head in his hands in embarrassment.

"Plagg...." He whines out as he rolls over onto his side. The black kwami swoops up and over to his sight.

"What's up kid?"

"Did you let Marinette drop me off here." "Yes." "Why didn't you wake me up!" "She gave me cheese. The girl has a way with words." Adrien simply groans at that. "She knows too much." He gives a faint laugh as he sits up ready to face the day. "Maybe I can carry her back tonight. Or give her more roses and chocolates." "To be fair kid, there's a point where you can have too much. Don't overdo the chocolates and roses." "What, like how you eat 3kg of cheese everyday?"

"That's different. Cheese is different."

Adrien rolls his eyes at him. He swears sometimes he's the one looking after the thousand year old being, and he's only a teenager. He wonders if Marinette ever feels the same about Tikki, though he doubts it. After deciding to get up and dressed, Adrien leaves his room before Nathalie can come knocking on his door. He's eating breakfast as she swiftly walks in and towards his bedroom before noticing he's already sitting at the table. She gives him a once over, nods in confirmation and just turns back around.

"I'll have Gorilla out earlier for you, Adrien."

Adrien smiles at the subtle gesture, but is appreciative anyways. He finishes eating soon after and takes off, making sure his kwami was still in his bag and hadn't snuck off for extra cheese on the way. He hops into the car, watching the scenery go by as he gazes outside, although he isn't really focusing. He says goodbye to the Gorilla as he starts walking up the stairs.

Once he sees the car leave, he climbs back down the stairs and runs towards Marinette's house.

He gets to the shopfront and sniffs in the warm, delicious scent in the air. Figures his lady would live in a bakery. One time she heard he was on a diet, and she made them do patrol every day that week just so she could bring him dozens of pastries. He always wondered where she got them from but now he knows. This may be bad for his diet though but who cares, he works it off being Chat Noir anyways.

He walks into the bakery and gives a warm smile to Marinette'ss parents, who spot him coming in. "Good Morning Adrien! How are you?" "I'm good Madame Dupain-Cheng!"

"Oh nonsense, call me Sabine."

Adrien chuckles and smiles warmly at her. "Ok, Sabine." She nods her head towards him in an affectionate way and he can't help but feel smothered with love, and he's barely walked through the door. He makes a point of having more morning visits to see not only Marinette, but also her parents. Whilst he can't get any love from his own parent, maybe he can get some here.

"What can I get for you today Adrien?"

"Nothing this morning, I was wondering if Marinette was up? I was hoping to walk with her to school?"

Sabine's smile starts to grow wider as she gives a knowing smirk. "You can go up and check honey, you know where to go?"

"Yes, thank you!" He gives her a quick wave as he ducks behind the counter and up the stairs. Unbeknownst to him, Sabine immediately rushes into the kitchen with excitement. Tom's busy kneading some bread on the bench and looks up with surprise.

"Tom! It's here, today is the day!" Tom gives her a confused look as she scuttles over closer to him. "Guess who just came to walk Marinette to school."

"Luka?"

"No silly, Adrien!"

"Aw, I was more a Luka fan." Tom gives a slight pout. "It's ok though. As long as Adrien treats her better than Chat Noir-"

"I thought you were over that dear?" She stares him down, to which he smiles in apology.

"Oh yeah, woops. I'm sure Adrien is a fine lad. As long as Marinette's happy."

"Yes, as long as she's happy. Just like I am with you." She puts her arms around Tom as he's kneading the bread before letting go and going back to the shopfront.

Meanwhile, Adrien is heading up the stairs towards the Dupain-Chengs living area. He notices no one around, so he suspects she's still asleep. He shakes his head before climbing up the ladder to her trap door, giving the trap door a faint knock.

"Princess? Are you awake?" No response. He silently opens the trap door to see Tikki playing Candy Crush on the computer and Marinette fast asleep. "Tikki?"

Tikki, who was previously calmly moving the mouse around suddenly jumps up as if caught in headlights. "Adrien! What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to walk Marinette to school- Why are you playing Candy Crush? And why is Marinette still asleep?" Tikki takes a quick look at the time before squeaking.

"I swear I was going to wake her up after a game or two. And then I just kind of kept winning..." She looks guilty as Adrien laughs at the small kwami. He guesses she can be a bit irresponsible sometimes. It doesn't matter, she's given him the chance to wake his own princess up. He climbs up to bed, sitting on the edge so as not to wake her up. He sees her hair all over her face, her weird sleeping position and the small trail of drool down her mouth. She's beautiful. He gives a fond gaze as he leans down to kiss her forehead.

"Hey Marinette." He hears her groan as she moves around. "Come on, you have to wake up." She opens her eyes a bit, trying to take in the scene before her. She sleepily mutters out to him. 

"Adrien?"

He nods to her. She has a moment of silence before she pushes him back, sitting up franticly. She's rushing her hands through her hair, furiously trying to pat down her hair while simultaneously trying to wipe the drool off her chin before Adrien grabs her hands in a hurry. She lifts her eyes to his as he looks back at her, firmly gripping her hands.

"Why do you need to do that?"

"Because I look like a mess-" She's cut off as he presses his lips to hers. He breaks it off before Marinette could fully comprehend it. She's still surprised as he looks at her, both of them sitting quite close on the bed. Adrien's arm is positioned over her legs as he leans on it, Marinette sitting up in the middle of her bed. She's still sitting there surprised, so Adrien leans in to kiss her again. This time Marinette comprehends it quickly enough, and starts to kiss him back.

"Excuse me!" The two teenagers break apart as they hear Tikki, who has her arms crossed. Plagg is by her side smiling evilly. "I know I was irresponsible earlier, but you haven't helped much Adrien."

He gives her an apologetic grin. "Sorry Tikki, you're right." He ruffles Marinette's hair as he moves back down to the floor. "Get ready, I'll be downstairs. I'm walking you to school so don't keep me waiting." He gives her a wink as he descends, closing the door but not before hearing a quiet shriek behind him. He finds himself shaking his head in amusement, never getting bored of her quirkiness.

"Why does he have to be so... UGH." Marinette throws a pillow at the bed before quickly getting out and getting dressed. Her heart is pounding fast, though she's not sure if it's from her running around her room or from her boyfr- cat. Her cat downstairs, who frequently kisses her and makes her swoon a lot of the time.

She finds herself rushing down the stairs, nearly falling off them in the process. Adrien's calmly sitting at her breakfast table. She still finds it so hard to think he's her partner, but seeing him sitting so casually in her house was on another level of absurdness. He hears her walk towards him and he stands up to join her, towering over her as he leans down to give her a quick peck on the cheek. She smiles awkwardly before facing straight forward and briskly walking down the stairs.

"Can't be late!"

"Marinette we have half an hour-" He drifts off as he realises she's already rushed down the stairs. He hurries after her, waving goodbye to her parents before opening the shop front door and skidding out to the path to catch up with Marinette. Marinette, still walking ahead and not talking to him much, confuses him. "Mari, are you ok?"

She nods very quickly, making Adrien concerned. Maybe she isn't as comfortable with him as Adrien as she is with Chat. He walks next to her but makes sure to keep the conversation light hearted before realising Marinette has stopped just short of the school steps.

"Marinette?" 

She's silent as she stands him to the side of the steps, guiding him by placing her hands on his shoulders and steering him there. She looks up at him.

"I'm sorry Adrien, I'm just not as used to seeing you so casually. Chat, he was, is my partner, and I'm comfortable doing anything around him. Remember, I still had a crush on you for a year-"

"Oh I remember M'Lady." He grins before she gives him an unamused look. He pouts. "Sorry."

"I'm just trying to adjust to knowing this. It was only about a week ago when everything was normal." "Do you want everything to be normal?" He gives her a questioning look, waiting for her answer. She also pauses, thinking about what she wants.

"No. No, I don't want to go back to normal. I'm glad I know, and I'm glad it's you." Adrien's heart feels much lighter hearing this after worrying so much. She gives him a warm smile. "But I do need time to adjust, and I don't think it would be the best idea if we tell everyone right now, especially since Alya thinks I'm into Chat Noir now-"

"-Well you are-"

"-NOT the point Chat!" She quickly covers her mouth as she realises they're not on a rooftop but rather outside their school. Adrien gives a quick look around to make sure no one heard before laughing at her reaction.

"That's the most Ladybug you've ever been around me Marinette, but save it for the roofs will ya?" She merely nudges his shoulder in annoyance before walking towards the steps, Adrien catching up to her. He pulls her aside to a bench before she plans to walk up towards their class, where he knows they won't get any privacy.

"So just to clarify, you don't want anyone to know about us?"

"Yes."

"But you still want there to be an 'us'?"

"Yes."

"Ok. What about Chat and Ladybug? Can there be a them?"

She gives him an apologetic gaze as she looks down at the floor. "I'm not too sure Adrien. There's just so much to think about, identities, the public eye, I mean hawkmoth could use you and me against each other..." She sees him start to lose his smile as she feels extremely guilty. "Look, can we talk later tonight?"

"Yeah, sure bug." Grimacing, he leaves for his locker, leaving Marinette torn and heartbroken. Of course she doesn't want to hurt her kitty, but when their relationship was restricted to the confines of her bedroom there was no risk. Now? Now, there's the risk of Alya putting two and two together, especially since she knew Marinette had a thing for Chat Noir a few days ago. And if Ladybug and Chat Noir start dating, then it would be even more obvious.

Even to the public, if she started dating Adrien Agreste it would surely get out, and they would be in the public eye. All she needs is one person to realise how similar they look to the superhero duo, and then her identity is gone. Her family or partner could be harmed, and they're both too precious to her.

She sulks into class, seeing the blonde already sitting in his own seat, eyes lingering on her but not for too long as he doesn't want to seem suspicious. She knows exactly how he feels, but doesn't know how to fix it. Guess she'll have to see what they can discuss that night.

***

That night, Ladybug swings around the streets of paris with a bag of materials for the night. She felt incredibly guilty for shutting Adrien down earlier that day, so she decided to plan something for the evening. She gets to the mansion, waiting to see if he was in his room. Luckily he was, simply sitting at his computer scrolling through a site. She leaps over to the window pane, giving it a soft knock. He turns to see her, and quickly reaches over to open the window, inviting her in.

"Hey bug! What's in the bag?" "A surprise." She flicks his nose playfully. "You'll see." She detransforms, leaving her in her comfy cat onesie. She hears Adrien practically purr at the onesie before seeing her face.

"M'Lady."

"Yes?"

"Why are you wearing a mask?"

"I thought to continue old traditions." She shrugs and goes over to the corner of his room near his bed, lugging the bag over. "By the way kitty, I brought your mask too. You should wear it, we have to discuss a lot of things tonight and it might help." 

He grabs the mask from her bag and places it over his eyes. "I'll follow you anywhere M'Lady, but I'm not sure how a mask is going to help us."

"Well," She huffs as she starts to set up the masses of material she's stuffed into her bag, "Firstly, we are going to build a big fort. I have sheets here, masses of pillows and we'll use your blanket. That way, it will feel as though it's just us, like on the rooftops but warm and comfy." Adrien smirks at this. "And then, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some things that need to be talked about." "Our relationship?"

"Yes that too." He loves how she's still quite a bit awkward about mentioning a relationship with him, but he dismisses it and starts to help her build the fort. They end up stringing the sheets over the railing above Adrien's bed, holding the rest up with weights on top of the skate ramp landing. The sheets cover the whole of Adrien's bed, making it quite a large fort. They use his bed as the main floor and stack the pile of pillows Marinette brought over onto his bed. In the end, it is very comfortable, and Adrien thinks he should remake this some times when she comes over.

"Ok kitty. Now to the hard stuff."

"Yes."

Marinette takes a breath in as she adjusts her mask. She wanted to keep this on purely for the sake of feeling more confident. She knew she'd feel a bit awkward if she was just there in person, but being in Adrien's bedroom in person and having fun building the fort with him has also seemed to calm her. Maybe she's already getting used to the idea of it.

"Now, I want to preface something that I didn't exactly say this morning. I really want to date you Chat. Really, I just worry a lot about identities."

"She really does."

"Tikki!" Marinette exclaims as Tikki phases in through the sheet, followed by Plagg.

"Marinette, you were stressing to me all afternoon, but as the kwami of creation and someone who knows the situation well, I believe I should have a say in this conversation." "Me too! Adrien whines about you too much." Plagg pipes in. "Plagg!"

"What?"

"Ok wait," Marinette gestures for everyone to pause, "Tikki, me and Adrien are talking about our relationship, not about us being heroes." "But Marinette, you're letting the fact that you two are heroes stop you from having a relationship in the first place!" Plagg nods as Tikki explains this, Adrien and Marinette simply look at them, stunned. "Marinette, I've known many Ladybugs before you, and they were all at their best performance when they had a Chat. Some were even their happiest when they were with Chat. The balance has always worked like that. If you two try to keep yourselves apart for the sake of identities, then you might be throwing your balance off, shifting it. It could potentially be disastrous."

"I know Tikki, you explained it before-"

"Then why won't you at least date him as Marinette?"

"Because-"

"Marinette. I already know the reason why, but I think Adrien needs to know."

Marinette's eyes open wide with fright. "What do you m-mean?"

"Marinette?" Adrien is concerned at this point. "What does Tikki mean?"

Marinette looks down, defeated. "I don't want you to end up Chat Blanc again."

"Again? Marinette when have I ever-"

"It was in an alternate timeline!" Marinette's tearing up at this point as Tikki strokes her cheek in attempt to comfort her. "We got together as a couple, and then you became Chat Blanc. You destroyed the world, and you were the only persone left in it, all alone in a cold, bleak world-" Marinette's choking out sobs as she feels Adrien's arms encircle her. 

He gives her a few moments to calm down, making sure her sobs have for the most part settled before starting to talk again.

"I can see this has really affected you, and I'm sorry that I wasn't there to go through it with you. Please look at me bug." She turns her eyes, damp with tears, towards his own as she sees him affectionately gaze down at her. "I know it may be hard, but that was an alternate timeline. The fact that you fixed it means that it's not going to happen, otherwise bunnix would be here right now wouldn't she?"

"I guess so..."

"And if we were in a relationship I'm guessing we knew each other's identity, right? Well, we've known each other's identity for a few days now and Bunnix hasn't come back has she?"

"No."

"Exactly! So maybe, in a way, we found out at the wrong time in that timeline but in this timeline... M'Lady in this timeline maybe we found out the right way." He slips his finger under her mask and lifts it up over her eyes to rest on her forehead, doing the same to his own mask. "Marinette, I told you once and I'll keep telling you, it's you and me against the world."

Marinette wraps her arms around Adrien's neck, pushing him down to the matress as she tries to stop herself from crying but she can't. Adrien sees her crying again and chuckles, wiping away her tears. He continues to comfort her, brushing her hair as they lie down next to each other before she eventually succumbs due to fatigue. He packs up the fort and puts everything into her bag before wrapping her up so she doesn’t get too cold in the night. He jumps out window carrying her bridal style and seeing a hint of a smile on the sleeping girl’s face.

"Bug, what's up now? I thought you were happy when you were hugging me?"

"I am happy. I'm too happy now and I'm crying." She's still sobbing as Adrien shakes his head, planting kisses on her forehead and cheeks before she calms down finally.

"Better?" She nods, wiping her eyes before giving him a weak smile. He tilts his head with a smirk before asking her for a kiss, which she happily obliges, both of their masks falling to the floor. He continues to comfort her, brushing her hair as they lie down next to each other before she eventually succumbs due to fatigue. He packs up the fort and puts everything into her bag before wrapping her up so she doesn’t get too cold in the night. He jumps out window carrying her bridal style and seeing a hint of a smile on the sleeping girl’s face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if this chapter seemed weird or off, I was finding it a very hard time to write or even enjoy writing becaus eI had a big writing assessment this week and I literally only handed it in 2 hours before uploading this. And i also didn't have a straight out plan to follow like i usually do for my chapters, idk where this one went but it waddled away on me so i had to memorise some of it too
> 
> TL:DR - sorry if this is dry it'll be better


	10. The Romantic

Adrien yet again wakes up happy. He's noticed ever since he's been going over to Marinette's and spending more time with her, his outlook on life has significantly improved. He still got a bit upset whenever his father would neglect him, however it was easier to deal with when he remembered Marinette. He could go see her whenever he wanted, and he loved it. He once again got up earlier and strides out the bedroom door with the intention to walk to Marinette's again. 

He drops into the bakery, once again smelling the wafts of the crispy pastries and looks towards the counter to see Sabine already smiling at him.

"Good morning Adrien!"

"Good morning Sabine." He warmly greets her as she nods towards the stairs.

"She's most likely still asleep. Before you know it, you'll be her new alarm clock."

Adrien chuckles knowingly at this. "I'll make sure she gets to school on time from now on."

"Thank you dear, you have no idea how many late notices I get from the school about her."

He gives her another encouraging smile as he acknowledges her before climbing up the stairs. He walks into the empty living room, noticing the breakfast cereal set out for Marinette, as if she'd have enough time to eat that. He finds the ladder and quickly leaps up it, again knocking on the door. This time he's surprised to hear an answer.

"Come in!"

He opens the trap door to see Marinette quickly shutting down her computer and spinning around with a smile. Tikki, the one who told him to come in, is giggling at the trap door at Marinette's expression.

Tikki flies near Adrien's shoulder and hovers. "She was scrolling through your Instagram, that's why she's flustered-"

"I WAS NOT! Tikki..." Marinette gives the biggest pout, prompting Adrien to run over and give her a hug as he snickers at her playfully.

"I knew there was a reason you had my posters up-"

"Adrien! Not you too!" He gives a loud laugh as she forces his arms open, letting herself free and ready to climb down the stairs towards the living room. He sighs in amusement, grabbing the bag off the desk that she forgot in her haste, and walks down after her, putting both the kwamis in Marinette's bag to keep each other company. 

They don't spend too long in the living room before leaving the bakery's premise and walking to school. Unfortunately, as they get to the classroom, Mlle Bustier walks in and they are quickly separated.

Adrien isn't sure whether it's the fact that he's unsure about where they stand or the fact that she's sitting so close to him yet he can't reach out and hug her right now. In fact, he can't do anything at school for fear of Alya finding out, even though he's sure she wouldn't. Unless...

Maybe he can take a step forward and ensure that she won't know, or at least wouldn't think of it. He sits there, restlessly as he plans whilst he attempts to learn and take in what his teacher is saying, but Nino notices him. Nino nudges him, as if questioning whether he was ok. Adrien merely mouths lunch at him and Nino nods in understanding.

As lunch ticks over, Adrien and Nino walk to their normal table to sit down. Nino grabs out some food before looking Adrien up and down.

"Spill dude."

"Ok..." Adrien leans in to whisper as he's interrupted by Alya coming over to sit with them, which is even better. "I like Marinette."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry sunshine, please repeat that so I'm sure I didn't hear it wrong." Alya cups her ear as she leans towards him, to which he repeats himself. "I can't believe it, finally after so many months of her liking you, you decide to like her AFTER she moves on to someone else." Alya's head falls to her own hands. Adrien's plan starts to roll out.

"Well, about that..." He sees her head flick up, her eyes judging him.

"What?"

"Marinette never really liked Chat... We already knew we liked each other by then."

"WHA-" This time Alya is quickly quietened down by Nino, who hushes her. She grabs his hand off her mouth. "What do you mean, Agreste!"

"Ok, long story short-"

"No, I want long story, don't cheat me details."

"Ok fine. We were hanging out for a bit a few weeks ago and I realised how much I liked her."

"Before the arcade?"

"Before, yes. Then after I realised how much I liked her, I accidentally heard that she liked me too, and then I kissed her and now we've been hanging out a lot and now I don't know where we stand because she's really nervous to have us date at school." He says all in one breath. He sees Alya's head explode as Nino sits there contemplating everything. He doesn't necessarily like lying to his friends, but if it means he keeps his identity safe and gets to hug Marinette openly, then he'd do it in a heartbeat. Alya finally comes to terms with everything he's said and takes a deep, calming breath before continuing.

"So... You two have hung out, confessed, even kissed once-"

"More than once-"

"MORE?! What has that girl been DEPRIVING me of?!" She looks like she's about to pull her hair out. Adrien internally cringes at the wrath he knows he'd be getting from his bug later on after she receives Alya's interrogation.

"This is insane dude!" Nino, who seems a bit happier for him, punches him on the shoulder. "But what did you mean you didn't know where you stood?"

"I mean, I haven't asked her to be my girlfriend yet. I want to formally ask her, with a big bouquet of roses or chocolates, or teddy bears-"

"What a romantic, Nino just asked me out in an animal cage."

"Because we were trapped?!" Alya laughs and nudges him.

"Sunshine, you like her, and she likes you, trust me I listened to her talk about it every day of the past year. Anything you do, no matter how big or small will be more than enough for her. The words 'will you be my girlfriend' coming out of your mouth will already put her over the moon." She smiles down at him before quickly shushing them as she sees Marinette approaching them.

"Hey guys, I was just-"

Suddenly, the ground shakes as an explosion is heard. The students in the courtyard know exactly what this means, and quickly file for their classrooms. Alya gives Nino a peck on the cheek as she dashes out to the cause of the noise. Both Adrien and Marinette look at each other, communicating with one look before sprinting out to follow Alya, leaving poor Nino confused and worried on the bench.

The two don't follow Alya for long, as they take a detour into the nearby alleyway. Marinette immediately opens her bag and looks towards Tikki.

"Ready Marinette?"

"I'm good, you ready Kitty?"

"Born ready. Plagg?"

"Let's kick some akuma butt!" Plagg does a flip in the air as both owners call their transformations.

Transforming is one thing. Transforming next to someone is something else. 

Both Marinette and Adrien are holding hands as they feel their transformation flow over them. It feels magnified, like having the two parts together has strengthened the individuals. Both of them can feel the extra energy from the other, as if they both have something to fall back on.

Knowing is one thing but seeing is another thing. Never has one phrase stood out more to Marinette then at that moment. She looks over to Adrien and sees him become her partner, and she knows in that moment that she's never going to love another person the same as she loves this cat right now. Seeing that transformation finally gives her the piece she needed to join the two sides of him together, and she feels as though she's never understood him better. 

"Come on Kitty, we don't have all day." She smirks at Adrien before he grabs her hand to kiss the back of it.

"I'm with you, M'Lady."

They're on the same wavelength, even jumping and landing on the roof at the same time. Both of them run in stride, like two mega charged super soldiers. It's comforting to the both of them knowing they have an exact equal by their side, no one more or less than the other. This seems to be extremely handy for the akuma today.

"Why, if it isn't Ladybug and Chat Noir. Usually I wouldn't greet black cats, as they're a sign of bad luck! But I have enough luck to go around. I can't say the same for you two." The akuma, who is wearing what seems to be a shooting star tutu, a 4-clover covered leotard, a wishbone headpiece, horseshoe bracelet and tights full of lucky numbers and rainbows, claims her name to be Good Luck Charm.

Chat Noir walks forwards with Ladybug in tow, flipping his baton mindlessly through his fingers. "Ladybug, she's literally ripping your brand off."

"I know, how rude. What do you say we fix this nice and quick?” They both turn to each other, a glint in their eyes as they already know exactly what to do. They leap into action.

***

The fight was over in a minute. No back up needed, no retreating and forming a plan. It was their best battle yet and they both knew it. Maybe there were perks to knowing your superhero's identity. As the two heroes finished answering news reporters’ questions and made their way back to the alley, they both called their detransformations. The two kwamis popped out but were quickly scooped back into Marinette's bag, Adrien making sure he put in a few slices of camembert. They then run, hand in hand back to their classroom, although they know it's still break. They get back to see Alya in a similar state, red faced and puffing. Nino, who is still sitting in the exact same spot, looks at them all confused.

"Why are you back here so quickly. I hadn't even finished my sandwich."

"You guys! You have to check this out, this was the fastest fight ever! Ladybug and Chat Noir were on fire today! They've never been more fluid or had more chemistry, it was amazing to watch. Here!" She props up her phone on the table as she beckons Marinette and Adrien to hurry over. They run over, watching their alter egos standing up on the roof. They see when they first jump into battle, how they dodged every crack the akuma created and dizzied the akuma enough with Ladybug's yoyo and lucky charm so that Chat Noir could grab the horseshoe bracelet and cataclysm it. It was over within the minute, and they both heard the murmurs of astonishment from the viewers near Alya. Adrien feels Marinette subtly lean into his side, as if giving him a silent appreciation. He subtly grabs her hand, giving it a squeeze.

The four talk for a bit more before being called back to class for their afternoon classes. Adrien and Marinette agree to talk at patrol.

***

"Did you notice something... different today M'Lady?"

Chat and Ladybug are currently sitting up on a roof near the Dupain-Cheng bakery. It's the roof that Chat first confessed to his Lady and gave her a rose. Both of them notice it, but don't mention it.

"What do you mean different?"

"Did you feel stronger? As you were transforming?"

Marinette hums in agreement. "I did. It wasn't like anything I had felt before. I felt more in tune with you."

"I didn't even know that was possible bug, but I agree." Whilst they're sitting with their backs against the railing and their legs touching, Chat's hand sneaks over to Ladybug's, grabbing her small hand within his own. "It felt like power."

"Well, we are the miraculous holders of the two most powerful miraculous. Maybe the shift in our relationship and partnership was what changed it. We transformed together, so in total there was double the power being transferred to both of us simultaneously." She nudges him with her shoulder. "Brings a new meaning to the term power couple eh?"

Chat coos at his lady's joke and turns his head to see her blue eyes staring up at him, the moon reflected in them. He leans down to kiss her briefly, his hand resting upon her back before feeling her shiver. Noticing that the night wind is a bit chilly, he wraps her in his arms and pulls her into his chest, standing up with her bridal style in his arms. He takes a few leaps to get to her balcony before leaning down to grab the latch and open the pane. He gently slips into the room, carefully placing his princess in her bed.

The two teenagers both let their transformations go as Marinette's hand grabs Adrien's pyjama sleeve. She pulls him down to her level, both of them now lying down on her bed. They awkwardly fumble around with the sheets until they're both comfortable within each other's arms. Kissing her forehead, Adrien then feels Marinette's arm drape across him and pull him closer. He hears grumbling noises floating around the room, but he can't be bothered to listen to them as he's in a state of bliss right now.

It isn't long before they both drift to sleep, the moonlight from the skylight highlighting the faint smiles on their faces.

"Plagg!"

Meanwhile, Tikki is planning to talk to Marinette about Chat's kwami and how he can't leave him untamed.

"I need cheese Tikki! You know that!"

"Why do you think Marinette bought a platter up here you glutton!"

"I already ate that."

"WHA-"

"Shush, you'll wake the kids."

"Plagg I swear to- Oh they're cute aren't they." Both Plagg and Tikki float above the bed with their two chosen’s, beaming down at them with pride.

"I'm glad they found each other. The kid's been a lot happier since he started coming here. He found his Sugarcube." Plagg tries tackling Tikki but not before she phases through the roof. Tikki giggles as she sees Plagg's unamused face. She floats in the middle of the balcony, dancing around by herself in the air.

"Come on Stinkyhead! Let's celebrate!"

He grumbles but starts to smile and joins his Sugarcube. "To our chosen."

"To our chosen! May they forever be happy with their soulmate."

"And not forget my cheese-"

"PLAGG!"

"What?!"

The kwami continue to dance around in the air, surrounded by the silent beauty of the Paris skyline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if the ending felt a bit rushed? I recently got sick and then last night when I was planning to finish it I kind of got in a fight with someone and actually left my house with nothing but my phone and went somewhere else to sleep, I'm fine now but I wasn't going to say I'd upload on a certain day and then not upload so here it is :)  
> Take care everyone, also one more chapter woo


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